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Amiga World gets down to business . . . Amongst other things. By Guy Wright BUSINKvSS IS THE theme, more or less. If’ you are looking for 100 tips on running your business with an Amiga, 42 ways to do double-entry bookkeeping on an Amiga and Hi sure-fire ways to improve productivity with your Amiga, then you are just not going to find all that in this issue. If you are curious about some of the ways that other people have integrated Ami gas into their businesses, then we have a few offerings. It is hard to pin clown anything beyond the obvious when it comes to Amigas and business. By that 1 mean when someone is using an Amiga to keep their books, or print their pavroll checks, or handle their word processing, then if is fairly clear what the connection is. However, it isn't great magazine material. (I can’t imagine thousands of people getting all worked up about an article outlining the pros and cons of loan amortization programs in real* estate offices,) The interesting material comes out when you ask someone if they use their Amiga at work and they answer “No, but. . .well, I put together a video for a presentation a white back" or “I digitized everyone’s faces for T-shirts" or "1 do color graphs for reports,” etc. Those are the kinds of stories about Amigas in business that are interesting to hear about, even if you just use your Amiga at home to play Earl Weaver Baseball. And speaking of baseball, the Red Sox finally won the 1986 World Series last week. As you will see in this issue, some of the staff spent more time cursing umpires, running out to the mound and changing lineups than they did slaving over their word processors (1 was on vacation for a few clays and they made the most of it while I was gone). “It was a scientific research thingie" claims our review edi* tor. “We had to, like, build the Amiga World Stadium, draft teams and really give the program a workout to sec if it met all the, uh. . .requirements." There is a lot of baseball in this issue. Status report. The AmigaWorld Public Domain Library is shaping up and should he ready for launch pretty soon. We could still use any and all contribu- tions. We are getting lots of hints and tips for the Hors d’oeuvres column. . .keep them coming. We could use a few more letters to the Repartee column, just to let us know how we arc doing. Is AmigaWorld getting better?

Document sans nom
November 1987
USA. $ 3.95 Canada $ 4.50 UK £2.50 A CWC I Publication
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Buyer’s
Guide
3 Blueprints
For Success
Httji the ionturr in the ml industry in the first hiff of '87 w'w experienced m.;ct yrrtlens sell in? Tidgrt? To cur larjts cBStawrs. Frill bit wufacturfrs. Here is a cifirisn o? Sales to three or our Jarjest custoners for this quarter tni East quarter. MaiT ¦¦¦¦¦¦ ¦»»,.
Ler*t ef third Qurter Sales Irsiits
Prepared by Kerry Rinf
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MAR
Also
Weaver Fever: Catch It!
Super
BASICS
Key to Regions
N . Eas t Sou th H i dues jj West I S.West
MUSIC X SOFTWARE, like a fine instrument is crafted from the heart. It is more than an excellent tool, it is also a work of art.
COMMITMENT: We have committed ourselves to pushing ahead state of the art in professional music software, enabling you to open new worlds of creativity at a cost, both in hardware and software, that is well within the budget of any serious musician.
TIME: The system supports real-time recording of systems exclusive data, as well as full graphic-oriented and event-oriented editing of sequences. You can even record while in edit mode and watch notes appear on your edit display as you play them!
LIBRARIAN: A configurable librarian is included with the program. You can teach the librarian how to communicate with any MIDI instrument which outputs system exclusive data.
NO COMPROMISES or shortcuts have been tolerated as we designed this product.
The master clock is accurate to I millisecond with a resolution of 192 clocks per quarter note. Sequences and library data can be any length, limited only by available memory if you want, you can dump a IOOK or larger sample into a library entry!
KEYBOARD MAPPING features allow almost any function of the sequencer to be controlled from a MIDI keyboard, footpedal, or other MIDI device. This includes starting stopping the sequencer, initiating sequences, and even changing the key map itself!
EDITING: An impressive battery of editing features will be supported. In fact, new editing features are being added daily as we interact with our network of working, professional musicians whose input has greatly contributed to the quality of this program.
COMMITMENT: Our commitment to music production does not stop here. A future product, Patch Editor Construction Kit, will allow you to create graphical patch editors for virtually any synthesizer you may own. Some technical knowledge will be required, but since patch editors, once created, can be traded between users, you should have no problem getting an editor for your needs.
THE POWER: Part of the power of Music-X comes from the computer it was created for: The Amiga, one of the most powerful and inexpensive personal computers available. At last you can run these many powerful applications in on environment that is a pleasure rather than a chore to use!
MICRO MIDI: Although Music-X will work with any of the many MIDI interfaces for the Amiga, we offer our own MIDI interface which we feel is a cut above. It features six outputs (each output switchable as OUT, THRU or OFF), two switch-selectable inputs, a channel loading indicator, and an external clock output (sync start stop) for synchronizing older, non-MIDI drum machines, and a serial pass-thru!
MICRO SMPTE: This complete SMPTE Reader will allow Music-X to synchronize v ith video or audio tape decks. It connects to the Amiga parallel interface and includes
o pass-thru so as not to interfere with printer operation. Our Micro SMPTE is compatible with all Amiga models (A500 AI000 A2000).
PHOTON VIDEO: Photon Video is a complete, integrated video animation system.
It includes facilities for both 2-D and 3-D animation, as well as automatic tape transport control and real time playback of rendered images. Our 3-D rendering module supports variable light sources, shadows, transparency, and reflections in a 3-D environment. Other modules include Cel Animator, Object Editor and Transport Controller with SMPTE support.
PATCH EDITOR: A sample patch editor (CZ-1000) of the type that will be included with the product.
17408 Chatsworth St., Granada Hills, CA 91344 Inside CA 818 360-3715 •
Outside CA 800 522-2041 FAX 818 360-1464
Commodore is a registered trademark of Commodore Electronics. Ltd.. Amiga is a registered uodtmork of Commodorc-AMIGA. Inc.. and the Commodore-Amiga logo is a trademark of Commodore-Amiga, Inc.
Ocle 138 on Header Service card
PRESENTS
AWARD WINNING GRAPHICS
Best Graphics: 16 Bit Division. The Software Publishers Association, 1986 Award For Special Artistic Achievement In A Computer Game. Computer Gaming World, 1987
Defender (of the Crown) is the most detailed, most graphically brilliant, most beautiful software program ever released for any microcomputer.
The Guide to Computer Living
Stunning graphics, life-like animation, and a good soundtrack add to the feeling of a movie-like story... Computer Entertainer
Sin bad and the Throne of the Falcon is a brilliant tribute to those masterful films...I've never seen anything like it. Computer Gaming World
choice for the most innovative software product of 1986...with graphics that make your computer into a home movie theater. Chicago Tribune
NOW PLAYING AT A SOFTWARE DEALER NEAR YOU
jgE Exclusively distributed by Mindscape, 3444 Dundee Road, Northbrook, IL 60062 Call toll free in Continental U.S. (except IL): 1-800-443-7982 Illinois: 1-312-480-7667
Waitable for An*ga. Atari ST. Macintosh. Apptollgs. IBM PC and Conrodore 54. Wt*ch are trademarks respectively & Commodore-Amiga. Atari Inc.. Apple Computer. Inc.. International Business Machines
and Commodore Ejectroracs, Ltd. Not all products are available for all formats. Onemaware is a trademark of Master Designer Software. Inc.
battery backed-up Macros
l-r *X* -i-i. !?««"
Wbrks with all Amiga
Unbeatable SCSI flexibility: No
Fytranrdinarv Sunnnrtt Call onr
Cheaner Rv The Ivfepahvte...
other Amiga hard drive can offer
technical support line, and you talk
The more megabyte
¦ J mm mm *
es you buy, the
you: Capacities from 20MB to 760MB...plug-in compatibility with optical (WORM) drives, removable
to the people who actually build the C Ltd products. Each drive is supplied with a complete technical
less each megabyte
j j .....
costs you!
22MB
- M1 33MB___
i pO99i90 1,111 ¦¦¦¦» ¦ •
1249. 95
cartridge drives &: CD ROMs...optional networking capability...dual
L. _ . Drive compatibility with ST506 and
manual. Each drive is fully formatted, with 10 MB of useful public domain software and commercial
44MB
1499. 95
mm 50MB 60MB
1999. 95
add-ons, allowing use of up to 14 hard drives with your Amiga!
1 ...- - - ¦ - ------- - - ----- - ~>----- -
demo programs.
80MB
150MB
2499. 95
3299. 95
A REAL Track Record: C Ltd
has been shipping Amiga hard drives since November, 1986. With thousands of units in use, you can count on C Ltd’s proven hardware & software reliability.
Amiga is a registered trademark of Commodore Business Machines, Inc.
additional sizes up to 750MB available upon request.
The Industry Longest Warranty
One-year parts &: labor warranty.
FAX: 316 267 0111 TELEX: 910 240-6563
The Amiga isn't just another “business machine” (who wants more IBM-alikes?), but it's more than powerful enough to handle any business application. And now the Amiga business software market is finally building up steam (see our Buyer's Guide). Also, many small enterprises find that AMIGAs can do a lot more than just keep the books. . .
November 1987
CONTENTS
VOLUME 3, NUMBER 6
Amigas at Work
By Peggy Herrington
Your Amiga just might he the key to success in a small business enterprise. . .at least that’s what several “enterprising" Amiga owners will tell you.
Business Buyer’s Guide
Compiled by Linda Barrett
If you thought there wasn’t much business software for your Amiga, think again!
Alternative Education: Learning by Amiga
By Neil Randall
Software manufacturers are beginning to realize the Amiga’s potential as a teaching took Here’s a sampling of some Amiga educational software.
Boot Me Up to the Ball Game
By Bob Ryan
Play Ball!. . . Quite simply. Earl Weaver Baseball is the most exciting, challenging, realistic computer game on the market. . .and we’ll show you why.
Graphics That Won’t Stand Still: Part II
By David T McClellan
The second installment in our three-part series gets you to the starting gate in learning
how to program animation on the Amiga using (’..
BASIC for Pros
By Louis R. Wallace
Serious Amiga programmers arc changing their minds about BASIC as a professional development tool, as they explore more advanced versions such as Amiga Basic and True BASIC.
Searching the Heavens
By Peggy Herrington
Palomar Observatory at Caltech thinks enough of the Amiga to link it to its world- famous 200-inch Hale telescope to explore the secrets of distant galaxies.
Zeitgeist
The editor attempts to button down his collar for some talk about Amiga business applications, but soon drifts off into baseball banter and other ballyhoo.
Info.phile Clear the “Bench”
By Bill Patchings and Mark L. Van Name
Too many unnecessary files may be dogging up your Workbench disk and wasting valuable memory. Here are some tips on clearing out the "dead wood."
Repartee
It still only costs 22 cents. . .
Notepad
Shock! Horror! Probe!. . .AmigaWorld covers the news.
Hors d’oeuvres
A record number of tips and techniques this month from our faithful readers.
Digital Canvas
We discovered one of our recently-departed editors was a closet-Ce .anne. Look at the man’s etchings!
Reviews
Publisher 1000 I Easyl I Imprint and the Polaroid Palette I Acquisition I Diga! Microfiche Filer I Galileo I A-Talk Plus Games: Grand Slam Tennis I Silent Service I The FaeryTale Adventure I Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon
Help Key
L. R. (“Load-and-Run") Wallace takes over the Q & A line.
What’s New?
Those new Amiga products keep pouring in like gangbusters.
AmigaSVorl i (ISSN 11885-2390) is an independent journal not connected with Commodore Business Machines. Inc. Ami ttWurid is published monthly hy 0W Cninimimcatioiis l'etcrljoitiugh. Inc.. HI! Kim Street. Peterborough. NH 0.3458. I ,S. Subscript inn rate is $ 12-1.07. one year; Canada $ 17.97 (Canadian luiuls), one year only: Mexico $ 29.97 (L'.S. funds drawn on C.S. hank), one year only; Foreign S44.97
(L. S. funds drawn tin I .S. Bank), one year only, foreign Airmail $ 79.97 (U.S. hinds drawn on C.S. hank). Second class postage paid at Peterborough, Nit, and at additional mailing offices. Phone: 603- 924-9471. Entire contents copyright 1987 by C V Communications Peterborough. Inc. No part nl this publication may be printed or otherwise reproduced without written permission from the publisher. POSI MASTER: Send address changes to AmigaWorld. Subscription Services. I’O Box H(>H. Fauningdale. NY 11735. Nationally distributed by International Circulation Distributors. AmigaWvrhi makes even effort to assure the accuracy of articles, listing and circuits published in the magu ine. AmigaWorld assumes no responsibility for damages due to errors or omissions.
T' n fi m m in
AMIGA?
THE LANGUAGES AND TOOLS YOU NEED ARE HERE FROM MeTACGMCO. THE AUTHORS OF AmIGaDos
AMIGA SHELL
MACRO ASSEMBLER
Professional macro assembler, this is THE assembler package for the Amiga. Standard 68000 mnemonics, macro expansions, over 160 explicit error messages, folly formatted listings, large range ol directives, absolute, position independent or relocatable code and conditional
assembly $ 99.95
, S8Q00 programmers wtli wan!!o lake advantage oltltis assembler's sophistication " Your Amiga - Sepn9fl7
AMIGA TOOLKIT I NEW VERSION
An enhanced command line interpreter 10 ease and speed up your development cycle Contains Unix like features such as Command Line History, Command Line Editor. Aliases. Variables and Push and Pop directories Also full documentation of Amiga CLI commands is provided
$ 69.95
"it s well worth Ike money lo anyone who uses the Amiga DOS CLI' Amiga World-June 1987
MCC PASCAL
An invaluable suite of program development utilities. Includes Make. Disassembler, Pipes. Librarian, Pack and Unpack. Browse and AUX CL! A package designed by the authors ol Amiga- D OS to extend the power of the operating system $ 49.95
¦Likeljf to become one of ttie most used programming aids lorltie machine' Your Commodore- Feb 1987
A fasl and efficient ISO validated Pascal compiler generating native code, comprehensive error handling, 32 bitlEEEformatlloalmg point and full 32 bit integers $ 99 95
The definitive Pascal compiler lor tne Amiga
Amiga user-Dec 1986
CAMBRIDGE LISP
RETRCORCO
An integrated LISP interpreter and compiler providing a complete Artificial Intelligence development environment with rational arithmetic trig functions, floating point arithmetic, vectors, integers of any size and much mare
26 Portland Square, Bristol BS2 8RZ, UK.
Telex: 444874 METACO G Fax: 44 272 428618
t1 METACOMCO 1987 mmmm Kutt
Amca jnaAmi3jDOSliJd«flUrt' ol Commoflrir'AniiijiInc *** ,
S199.95
One ot the most advanced LISP systems I have ever seen" Amiga World - Feb 1986
Circle 16 on Reader Serv.ce card.
AMIGA 1200 BAUD MODEM
Huge databases of every imaginable type are now on-line just waiting for you to dial up. All you need is a telephone and modem connected to your Amiga which allows you to download this information.
You don’t need to worry about cables, compatibility or anything else! We don’t just sell hardware, we sell solutions. The Aprotek 12AM plugs directly into your Amiga. The 12AM is a full-feature. 300 and 1200 baud modem with Auto Answer. Auto Dial, Touch- Tone or rotary dialing, has status indications on screen to let you know what is happening all the time. The 12AM comes complete with “Tiny Online,” a complete communications and terminal program on disk. Just plug it into your computer and standard phone jack with the supplied cable. (No additional power supply required.) Also included is a free trial offer subscription to CompuServe, the complete user database. 5 year warranty. From Anchor • Omega 80.
Aprotek A12AM only $ 11 9.95 + Shipping S5.
SEIKOSHA PRINTERS Price & Shipping
SP-180AI Parallel. 100CPS + NLO. Order *2050 $ 127.00 + S12.00
SP-1000VC (C-64 Direct) + NLQ Order *2200 S137.00 + S12.00
SP-1000AS (RS-232 Serial +NLQ) Order *2500 $ 159.00 + S12.00
SP-1200AI (Epson IBM) 120CPS +NLQ Order *2600 $ 161.00 + 512.00
SP-1200VC (C-64 Direct) 120 CPS +NLQ. Order *2664 5153.00 + 312.00
MP-1300A1 300 CPS (Epson IBM) Order *2700 S298.00+ 514.00
Amiga Printer Cables (6 ft) *3040-6MF S12.95 (10 ft) *3040-10MF $ 16.95
ORDER INFORMATION Calif, add 6% tax VISA and MC add 3%. Dealer inquiries invited. Prices and availability subject to change For information and to order call 805 987-2454 (a-s pst)
Or send order to:
_=T vryt Dept. AM
1071-A Avenida Acaso
= rir IVV- IVJV. Camarillo, CA 93010
Publisher
Stephen Twombly
Editor-In-Chief
Guy Wright
Managing Editor Shawn Lafiamme
Technical Editor Robert M. Ryan
Review Editor Linda J. Barrett Senior Editor Dan Sullivan
Contributing Editors Bill Catchings,
Peggy Herrington,
David T. McClellan,
Mark L. Van Name,
Lou Wallace
Art Director
Rosslyn A. Frick
Assistant Art Director Howard G. Happ
Designers Anne Dillon Roger Goode
Production Assistant Ruth Benedict
National Sales Manager
Stephen Robbins
Sales Representative Kenneth Biakeman
Advertising Coordinator
Pull Down Menu Heather Paquette 1-800-441-4403
West Coast Sales Giorgio Saluti, manager
1-415-328*3470 Danna Carney
Pull Down Menu Sales Assistant 3350 W. Bayshore Road. Suite 201 Palo Alto, CA 94303
Secretary Sandy Kierstrad
Marketing Manager
Wendie Haines
Marketing Assistant Laura Livingston
Business Manager
Barbara Harris
President CEO
Michael S. Perhs
Vice-President General Manager
Roger Murphy
Director of Corporate Production
Dennis Christensen
Typesetting Manager Linda P, Canale Typographer Michele Paradis
Manufacturing Manager
Susan Gross
Director of Circulation
Frank S. Smith
Circulation Manager Bonnie Welsh
Direct Marketing Manager Paul Ruess
Single Copy Sales Manager Linda Ruth
Telemarketing Manager Elizabeth R. Kehn 800-343-0728
Special Products Manager Vivian Mattila
Director of Credit Sales & Collections
William M. Boyer
Circle 15 on Reader Service card
4 November 1987
AMIGA OWNERS:
Discover new worlds within your Amiga
Interface connects any Commodore 64 disk drive and printer to your Amiga.
Why wait for an expanded range of Amiga software when you can take immediate advantage of quality
software already chosen by six million other computer owners? The 64 Emulator by ReadySoft ...here, now, and ready for you.
DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED
All Amiga disk drives and printers are fully supported. The easy-to-use transfer software makes moving your 64 programs to Amiga disks a snap! For increased compatibility with protected software, the optional Serial
I want to use the thousands of Commodore 64 programs on my AMIGA. Please rush me:
T The 64 Emulator r« $ 39.95 ($ 49.95 Cdn.)
The 64 Emulator with Serial Interfaced $ 59.95 ($ 79.95 Cdn.)
Please specify compute'' oeiow)
I own n Amiga 500 H Amiga 1000 Amiga 2000
Payment by ” Check 3 Money Order ~ Visa “ Mastercard
card no. Exp. Signature
P ease add $ 3 90 ($ 4 Cdn.j fo: snipping a d handling Ontario residents pease add ?'¦. P $ T No C O.D p'ease
Name____
Address___________
The 64 Emulator broadens the horizons of your Amiga with access to thousands of programs written for the Commodore 64. Yes, the proven word processors, databases, spreadsheets and exciting games can now be run on your Amiga.
City Town.
THE 64 EMULATOR FOR YOUR AMIGA
Written in 100% 68000 machine code for maximum speed, the 64 Emulator takes full advantage of your Amiga's hardware to support all aspects of the Commodore 64 including sound and color. A monochrome mode allows you to turn off the color for increased speed.
J
ReadySoft lnc.|
To:
ReadySoft Inc
P. O. Box 1222 Lewiston. N.Y. 14092
PHONE ORDERS
(416) 731-4175
Please have credit card number ready
j
J
L
Commodore is a registered trademark of Commodore Electron os Limited Amiga s a regis:erec trademark of Commodore*Amiga Inc
Zeitgeist
Amiga World gets down to business . . . Amongst other things.
By Guy Wright
BUSINKvSS IS THE theme, more or less. If’ you are looking for 100 tips on running your business with an Amiga, 42 ways to do double-entry bookkeeping on an Amiga and Hi sure-fire ways to improve productivity with your Amiga, then you are just not going to find all that in this issue. If you are curious about some of the ways that other people have integrated Ami gas into their businesses, then we have a few offerings.
It is hard to pin clown anything beyond the obvious when it comes to Amigas and business. By that 1 mean when someone is using an Amiga to keep their books, or print their pavroll checks, or handle their word processing, then if is fairly clear what the connection is. However, it isn't great magazine material. (I can’t imagine thousands of people getting all worked up about an article outlining the pros and cons of loan amortization programs in real* estate offices,) The interesting material comes out when you ask someone if they use their Amiga at work and they answer “No, but. . .well, I put together a video for a presentation a white back" or “I digitized everyone’s faces for T-shirts" or "1 do color graphs for reports,” etc. Those are the kinds of stories about Amigas in business that are interesting to hear about, even if you just use your Amiga at home to play Earl Weaver Baseball.
And speaking of baseball, the Red Sox finally won the 1986 World Series last week. As you will see in this issue, some of the staff spent more time cursing umpires, running out to the mound and changing lineups than they did slaving over their word processors (1 was on vacation for a few clays and they made the most of it while I was gone).
“It was a scientific research thingie" claims our review edi* tor. “We had to, like, build the Amiga World Stadium, draft teams and really give the program a workout to sec if it met all the, uh. . .requirements."
There is a lot of baseball in this issue.
Status report. The AmigaWorld Public Domain Library is shaping up and should he ready for launch pretty soon. We could still use any and all contribu- tions. We are getting lots of hints and tips for the Hors d’oeuvres column. . .keep them coming. We could use a few more letters to the Repartee column, just to let us know how we arc doing. Is AmigaWorld getting better? Worse? About the same? Arc the articles valuable, too complex, too simple, well written. Poorly written? Is the review section accurate, reliable, too hard on products, too soft on products, believable, biased, too long, too short? What do you think? When was the last time you wrote a letter to a magazine saying that you thought they were doing a good job? Fake two minutes it) jot a note on the back of a rock and mail it in to us. If enough of vou write in, then we can finish the west wing by the summer. If
you all say wonderful things about the magazine, then we can sleep a little easier at night knowing that we are, in our own small way, making life a little brighter for Amiga owners everywhere. Which would be great. If you all say terrible things about the magazine, then we will have nightmares, let our hair go wild, start eating bugs, and begin to question our purpose in life. Which would he a terrible shame considering the mammoth amount of raw, creative energy we have around here.
So it is up to you and your conscience.
1 lave a good read. ¦
Powerful software that's easy to
Digital Solutions Inc. brings you the easy-to-use word processor specifically designed to use the power of your Commodore Amiga™.
LPD Writer™ allows you to see all projects and applications through windowing. Each project can then be “zoomed” up to full-screen size. You can execute a command by using the mouse, function keys or “short cut” command sequences. A “suspend” feature allows you to put away all projects and windows you are currently working on and a “resume" command will restore the projects and windows to the pre-suspended state. Also featured is on-line memory resident help.
This professional program gives you all the functions you would expect from a word processor plus the following features:
• On-screen text formatting and wordwrap. What you see is what you get!
• On-screen text enhancements including boldface, underlines, italics, suPerScrip«sand subsCfipls
• No complicated format commands embedded in text
• On-screen help available any time
• Easy-to-remember command with choice of user interface: function keys, mouse and menus, or keyboards
• Built-in Spelling Checker up to 500,000 words
• Multiple documents can be edited at the same time
• Multiple windows may be opened on a document to view different areas of the document simultaneously
r Digital Solutions ' Inc.
• All the standard formatting features, including on-screen justification, centering, line spacing, indentation, margins and page breaks
• Multiple headers and footers, displayed on screen
• Extensive editing tools, including ability to format, style, cut, copy. And paste blocks of text
• Unlimited document length using linked files
• Side scrolling up to 250 characters
Requires 512K and Kickstart 1.2
• Can be used to edit regular ASCII text files
• Supports international keyboard layouts
• Search and replace
• Mail merge for form letters; merge data may be supplied by sequential files
Digital
Solutions
Inc.
• Edit documents while printing
• And much more
LPD Writer
*
Professional Word Processor for the Commodore Amiga
• On-screen text formatting and wordwrap.
What you see is what you get'
• Easy-to-remember commands with choice of user interface lunction keys, mouse and menus, or keyboard
• Multiple windows may be opened on a document to view different areas ol the document simultaneously
• All the standard formatting features, including on-screen justification, centering, line spacing, indentation, margins and page breaks
• “Suspend" feature to put away projects and windows and later "Resume" projects and windows to the pre-suspended state
• Edit documents while printing
Powerful software that's easy to use.
Suggested retail price S119.95 U.S.
2-30 Wertheim Court Richmond Hill, Ontario Canada L4B1B9
(416) 731-8775
Repartee
Pleased Programmer
have been subscribing to Amiga World since the publication of its premiere issue. Most of the A* sues, however, left me feeling empty. They did not have information useful to me as a programmer.
The Special Issue and the July August '87 issue were exceptions. They were immensely useful. The article on the operating system kernel Exec, helped me understand its operation in detail. The Amiga!JOS reference guide lets me find command formats quickly and easily. I had been waiting for an article on the audio device ever since bought my Amiga two years ago. The article gave me enough information to write a note editor almost as powerful as the original Aiusicraft.
These two issues were the best since the magazine began publication. hope that your future issues will continue to include articles for the programmers who want to understand how their machine works.
Jose Aaron Gonzalez San Diego, CA
Sinking Simulation
I recently purchased a copy of Silent Service, a submarine simulation game from MicroTrose Software, Inc. (See review in this issue, p. xx.)
I enjoyed the game very much. However, I used the progr am for about two days before it started to gradually fail, locking me out of one area at a time until I couldn't load it at all. returned the defective disk as per the warranty instructions. When I finally got my new disk, it lasted about three hours on the day got it. The next day. It began to lock up or kick me hack out
of the program.
! Suspect that the problem is in the program s copy protection. Of course, Micro Prose will sell you a backup copy for $ 10. But, this copy is also protected and, if I am right, just as defective. Although like the program very much, I would not recommend it to your readers, unless of course they want a program that they can use only a couple of hours a month.
Jack Sharkey
A naheim, CA
MicroProsc has recently released an upgrade to Silent Service that should take care of the problems. Contact them for information about any upgrade policy they may he offering.
Editors
1000 Uncertainties
I've owned an Amiga 1000 since October of last year, and being a graduate student, it certainly made my life easier. Reading your article in the May June issue of Amiga- World ["Bringing It All Bark Home: The Amiga 500," p, 27} makes me feel uncertain about the future of hardware peripherals for the Amiga 1000. Mr. Ryan staled that the 500 was ‘ functionally equivalent" to the 1000. If this is truly the case, then the 1000 does not have a forseeable future as an “in demand" machine. Since 1 am on a limited budget, I cannot go out and buy the extra memory that I would like to have, nor ran I afford to upgrade to a 2000. Will he stuck with a machine that wilt be unexpandable before long?
Commodore is to be praised for its innovative Amiga line, but they are
also to be criticized for not having the foresight to engineer the new Amiga models, especially the 500, to be able to support hardware already developed or being developed for the
1000.
Terryr E. Osborne
Tuscaloosa, AL
I think Commodore has just made a mistake in their redoing of the Amiga. The new A2000. Granted, they made some nice improve men ts (e.g., internal disks, expansion slots, clock calendar), but why the hell did they change the Zorro slot? I also cannot understand why thy put the Workbench into ROM, If you look at the changes made to Workbench since it came out. I am sure there will he more changes to it in the future. myself would rather have the upgrade on afresh new di.sk than to do a ROM patch. Also, if I wanted something to be as slow as the IBM PC, would have bought the damned thing to start with.
Robert 1 . Donlon Cohoes, NY
Thank you for the opportunity to vent my frustration along with the other Amiga WOO owners who will undoubtedly fill your mailbox with letters of disbelief I'm referring to the absurd decision by the folks at Commodore who introduced not only one, but lwo new machines that preclude expansion hardware that is common to all three AMIGAs!
In "Back in Trout. . .Amiga Again" [March April '87. P. 17],
Bob Ryan reported that "deirices that connect to the expansion bus on the A1000 can't connect to the Amiga 2000" and that the [86-pin expansion] bus comes out of the left side of the A 500 and out of the right side of the A1000."
took a big gamble on Com mo- don Amiga monitors were not available, and used a TV with an RE modulator for six mouths until Amiga monitor production caught up to the demand. assumed there would he product improvements, but I never suspected that Commodore would market upgraded models so soon that wmdd be incompatible with the A WOO in such a significant area as RAM expansion.
The Amiga WOO is the most capable machine in its price range. Unfortunately, hardware is not the only criteria to consider before you purchase an Amiga. Think about the company you will be dealing with and their disregard for their customers!
Chip Frazier
Bellevue, NE
The above is a sampling of letters that we have received from frustrated and bewildered 1000 owners. In an effort to present all sides of the story, we would like to hear from other 1000 owners as well as those of you who have already purchased either the 500 or the
2000. What are your impressions of your machine? Is it living up to your expectations? What about your experiences with Commodore i.e., customer support)? Let's hear from you!
Editors
Send your letters to: Repartee, Amiga World editorial, 80 Elm St., Peterborough, NH 03-158. Letters may he edited for space and clarity.¦
C rete 64 on Reader Serv-.ce card
And the hits keep on coming.
At WordPerfect Corporation, having one blockbuster hit just isn't enough. That’s why were not resting on the success of WordPerfect, the top-selling word processor for the IBM1 PC. Instead, we keep turning out hit after hit.
The latest WordPerfect entry on the software charts introduces Commodore Amiga1 users to power word processing. Unlike other Amiga word processors, WordPerfect for the Amiga easily performs functions like table of contents generation, footnoting, on-screen columns, macros and much more. And WordPerfect for the Amiga shares document compatibility with WordPerfect files generated on many otlrer machines, including IBM PC compatibles,Macintosh1, Apple lle lIc IlGS*, and some minicomputers.
Start your Amiga writing perfectly today, with WordPerfect. For more information, call or write WordPerfect Corporation, 288 West Center Street, Orem, Utah 84057,
7 T
WordPerfect
P. HRPORATinN
(801) 225-5000.
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WordPerfect for the IBM PC Compatibles WordPerfect for Data General Minicomputer WordPerfect for PC Networks WordPerfect for 12 Foreign Languages PlanPerfect for the IBM PC Compatibles PlanPerfect for Data General Minicomputers WordPerfect for the Apple ile Ilc PlanPerfect for PC Networks WordPerfect Library for the IBM PC Compatibles WordPerfect for the Apple I1GS WordPerfect Library for Data General Minicomputers WordPerfect for DEC UAX Minicomputers WordPerfect Library for DEC WAX Minicomputers Repeat Performance for the IBM PC Compatibles WordPerfect Executive for the IBM PC Compatihles
Number 1 on Charts Number 1 on Charts Number 1 on Charts Number 1 on Charts Current Hit Current Hit Current Hit Current Hit Top 28 Hit Current Hit Top 18 Hit Top 18 Hit Top 18 Hit Climbing the Charts
the Charts
WordPerfect for Amiga
Hew Release
WordPerfect for the Atari ST
Nm Release
WordPerfect for the Apple Macintosh
Release*. 18 8?
DataPerfect for the IBM PC Compatibles
Release*. 11 B7
WordPerfect for UNIX
Under Development
WordPerfect for IBM Mainframes
Under Development
Notepad
LIVE! Lives!
If it weren't for the fact that a lot of people have invested a lot of time and money in the product, and that a lot more have eagerly awaited its arrival, the trials and tribulations of LIVE!, the real time video digitizer from A-Squared Distributions Inc., would be a pretty funny story. Although prototypes have existed for over two years,
LIVE! Has been caught in a long series of false starts and delays that had people wondering if it would ever see the light of day. Well, tlie sun isn’t up yet, but that pale glow on the eastern horizon just might be the morning I wi light.
Like so many other priorities, LIVE! Got lost in the shuffle of the many shakeups and layoffs that have plagued Commodore since the introduction of the Amiga. Originally licensed to Commodore in January 1986, LIVEJ’s progress to market was alternately a burning priority and a back-burner project, depending upon the emphasis of the current management team and the workload of Commodore’s engineers. Finally, earlier this year, A-Squared negotiated a release from its agreement with Commodore and announced its intention to market the product itself.
Although there were plans to change the name of the company to Grab Inc., A-Squared is sticking with its original name.
It also plans to have LIVE! On the market in October of this year. As Wendie Petersen told
me in a phone interview, “it’s an incredible relief to have things under your control.” Initially, A-Squared plans to sell Live! Direct to customers for S295. As the ball gets rolling, it plans to build a dealer network to carry the product.
RR
North of die border. Commodore Canada is sponsoring die Fourth Annual World of Commodore Show on December 3-
6. The show will feature both Amiga and C-64 128 exhibitors and speakers, and will be held at the International Centre,
6900 Airport Rd., Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. For more information, contact John Milne at 416 928-21 12 or Kathy Dimo- poulos at Commodore Business Machines Ltd. (416 499-4292).
RR
Showy Graphics
With 30.000 attendees, SUBGRAPH is die biggest computer graphics show in the country. This year, people packed the Anaheim Convention Center to catch up on the latest developments in digital design at the 14th annual SIGGRAPH conference. Sponsored bv the Association for Computing Machinery and an arm of the IEEE. SIGGRAPH is the trade show to see and be seen at, graphically speaking. And although SUBGRAPH is traditionally the showcase for high-end professional workstations, the lowly (by cost comparison) Amiga
made quite* a splash.
Pixel-freaks, many of whom had never seen an Amiga be- fore, pac ked Commodore’s exhibit area where a score of Amiga 26(H) workstations brought to life the latest creations of Byte by Bvte (the Sculpt 3-D ray-tracing program), Aegis Development (VideoScapc 3-D and Video Titler), Ameristar (networking a couple of Amigas to a Sun workstation) and ACS (showing its E FX storyboard software). Other highlights included Microlllusions’ preview of Photon Video, its new animation software, and New fek’s smashing parody of you-know- who called Maxine Headroom done with animated DigiVicw images. Around die corner. Mi- mctics demonstrated its new genlock and frame-grabber while the University of Lowell (MA) showed a snazzy 35-MI PS pipeline-stylc signal processing card that boosts Amiga output to broadcast-qualilv standards.
In another part of the booth, the Right Answers Group previewed The Director, a script- based animation package.
Evening excitement included a marathon Amiga Friends User Group meeting that attracted over 566 people to the ballroom of a nearby hotel, and a more intimate gathering hosted by several Amiga developers and Dale Luck, inimitable Commodore Amiga engineer. These activities competed with the highlight of the conference, SIGGRAPITs renowned and always soldout Film and Video Show (presented in a huge auditorium on three successive nights), where 54 of the most creative animations I’ve ever seen were screened. Although my favorite was Disney’s Oilspot and Lipstick (a couple of clogs created with spare parts resolve conflicts at their garbage-dump home), the winner was Pixars Red’s Dream, featuring a rainv- niglit performance by a lonely uni cycle. A portion of Red’s Dream quickly reproduced on the Amiga by a favorite Amiga graphics programmer delighted viewers at the developers’ reception and on the exhibit floor until Pixar (who introduced a “low-cosi” computer graphics workstation at SIGGRAPH for only $ 49,666) objected. Graphic junkies should note that SIGGRAPH 88 will be held August 1 -6 in Atlanta, where you can expect the Amiga to make an even bigger splash in the world of DEC, Apollo and Sun.
SSy Herrington
Random Access
The rumors floated at last Spring’s COMDEX about a policy allowing Amiga 1000 owners to get a discount when upgrading to the A2000 have come to earth. Commodore will not offer a discount to A1000 owners upgrading to a 2060.
SYSOPs beware! Amiga World contributing editor Peggy Herrington has received reports of a destructive program lurking on some Amiga BBSs. Galled STEM MY. ARC or Si .EM.MY. ARC, the program erases the disk you execute it from. ¦
Circle 150 on Reader Service card
New Laser Times
"All the tools you need to print"
VOL. CXXVII No. 2
Hus Ail was created uuiik Pmiewimn.il Page A an Amiga IIWN). Color separatcl with lltc Pi.ilcsmnal t «kn Separation iimmJuIt. And p.micd oil an I mntrnnie ItKi i>|x-witcr. Prolcsvional Pace. Prolessiona! Color Separation module ate ttmlemarks o1C.itildD.sk Inc. 1M ) Hox 78‘». Strcctsvillc. Mississauga, Ontario, t .mm a L5M 2C2. Amiga. Linolroiuc. I oslScnni. Aegis Draw Phis are trademarks of Coniniodorc Amiga Inc. I inoiv|>c Company. Adobe Systems Inc and The V* t honlicr otp. Respectively. Macintosh is a tiai.emark licensed to Apple .otnputei. Hu
MAC ATTACKED
Amiga Redefines Desktop Publishing
Even create magazine quality
m. UTOPY TINT YOT TR H ANDS
ti-.
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This page was created with revolutionary new software that pushes professional desktop publishing far beyond the reach of the black and white Macintosh. Introducing Professional Page from Gold Disk Inc. Priced at US$ 395, it’s the first product to channel the Amiga’s incredible graphics capabilities into a PostScript compatible desktop publishing program for the serious power user.
Graphics make the difference
The world isn't as simple as black and white. So Professional Page converts graphics to black and white half-tones that appear on the screen in 16 shades of grey. Try that on a Mac SE.
And with Professional Page's optional color separation module, priced at $ 195. You can make quality color separations of Amiga graphics containing up to 4096 colors. Import IFF bit-mapped graphics, structured graphics (Aegis Draw Plus) even HAM files.
And not only does Professional Page support all PostScript compatible laser printers, but it can also create magazine-quality output
at up to 2400 dpi when interfaced with a Linotronic typesetter (just like the page you're reading new).
Professional Page Design
Professional Page uses a powerful, yet easy to learn user interface to control all facets of layout. Page elements are moved around the screen with the simplicity of point-and-click. Two- button mouse control. Page sizing, repositioning and rotation is effortless.
A fully integrated word processor and graphics editor provide instant access to powerful on-screen tools. Professional typesetting features include auto hyphenation, kerning (auto and manual), leading and
SPLASH ON THE COLOR.
Color documents.
Tracking. You can create typeset quality text with any combination of 16 different PostScript fonts - with more on the way. Italics, bold text, underlining, outlining, and shadowed faces give the user a wide range of styles and expressions.
Stretch or shrink your text with point sizes ranging from 127 to 1. Or stretch your page to as large as 17x17 - even bisser than a tabloid size newspaper.
To find out more about the Amiga’s answer to the Macintosh, call the company that just created a new Gold standard in desktop publishing. Gold Disk Inc, PO Box 789, Slreetsville, Mississauga, Ont, Canada, L5M2C2, (416)828-0913.
Besides the revolutionary Professional Page software for the power user of desktop publishing, Gold Disk Inc also offers easy- to-use entry level desktop publishing (PageSetter 1.0, $ 149.95), with modules that add exciting new typefaces (FontSet 1, $ 34,95), PostScript laser printer typesetting capabilities (PageSetter LaserScript, S44.95), and Hewlett Packard LaserJet printer interface (PageSetter Jet, $ 44.95).
In addition. Gold Disk also features a spell checking program, GoidSpell 2, with a 90.000 word dictionary. It not only suggests correct spelling, but also allows you to create a private dictionary of personal terms for use with your word processing software.
GoidSpell 2 works with most popular wordproces- sors including TextCraft Plus, Scribble!, ProWrite and VizaWrite.
Macintosh Anonymous Meeting. There’s no reason to be ashamed, millions of people have made the same mistake. The people at MacAnon specialize in
MacAnon Just Say No
A Gold Mine for Amiga Owners
pram;
THE GOLD DISK SOFTWARE FAMILY
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it's making every other spreadsheet old fashioned!
He original MaxiPian™ was named le Best Amiga™ Spreadsheet of 986 by F.A.U.G., the world s irgest and most active Amiga ser group. Now in 1987, Oxxi is roud to introduce MaxiPian lus™ the most advanced Amiga preadsheet ever. With even more me-saving innovations than the ward-winning MaxiPian, the new laxiPlan Plus includes Microsoft xcel ™-like Macros and Utilities.
ith MaxiPian Plus and your miga you can:
Open multiple spreadsheets nd graphs
"Link” data from any number of preadsheets
Create a self-running demo or iteractive multiple choice quiz, icorporating files from word irocessors and paint programs
Automatically create reports uch as invoices and purchase rders
MaxiPian Plus™
$ 199.°°
at your local Amiga software dealer.
Oxxi lac
I 835-A Dawns Way Fullerton, CA 92631 (7141999-6710
m AMIGA USERS GROUP AWARD
VMTVOt
MAXIPIAN
ruscrr
MaxiPian
Named the best Amiga spreadsheet of 1986 for its outstanding mouse interfaces, unique pull-down menus and advanced speech capabilities.
Excel is a trademark of Mit rosolt Corp
Circle 33 on Reader Service card
Micro-Systems Software Inc.
Finally Software
99. 95
Scribble!
69. 95
Talker
99. 95
Textcraft
(’omniodoi'c
79. 95
TextPro
Abacus
VizaWrite
Progressive Peripherals X- Software
WordPerfect Corp.
149. 95
395. 00
WordPerfect
multiple documents, mail merge, transfer between windows, spelling checker
full-function with speech synthesis by letter, word or sentence, fonts
menus, templates, help tutorials, typestvles include superscripts and subscripts
30 definable function keys, automatic hyphenation, pull-down menus, graphics
resizable graphics, multiple documents, glossary system, import ASCII files
Amiga version of the IBM bestseller, thesaurus, dictionary, multiple documents, math capabilities, footnotes
Company List
Abacus
2201 Kalamazoo S E PO Box 7219 Grand Rapids, MI 49510 616 241-5510
B. E.S.T. Inc,
11525 SW Durham Rd„ Bldg. D Tigard, OR 97224 800 368-BEST
Byte by Byte
Arboretum Plaza II
9442 Capitol of Texas Hwy. N.
Suite 150
Austin, TX 78759
512 343-4357
Chang Labs
5300 Stevens Creek Rd.
San Jose, CA 95129 408 246-8020
Clockwork Computers Inc.
4612 Holly Ridge Rd.
Rockville, MD 20853 301 924-5509
Commodore Business Machines
1200 Wilson Dr.
West Chester, PA 19380 215 431*9100
Computerware
Box 668
4403 Manchester Ave., Suite 102 Encinitas, CA 92024 619 436-3512
Digital Solutions Inc.
30 Wcrtheim Court, 2 Richmond Hill. Ontario Canada L4B 1 B9 416 731-8775
Eastern Telecom Inc,
9514 Brimton Dr.
Orlando, EL 32817 305 657-4355
Eclipse Data Management Inc.
3125(. Lafayette St.
Glendale, CA 91205 818 9560766
Finally Software
4000 MacArthur Blvd.
Newport Beach. CA 92663 713 722-2922
Haitex Resources
208 Carrollton Park, Suite 1207 Carrollton, TX 75006 214 241-8030
Harvsoft
Box 725
Buffalo, NY' 14207 716 877-3510
Lattice Inc.
2500 S. Highland Ave.,
Suite 300
Lombard, IL 60148 800 533-3577
Lionheart Press Inc.
PO Box 379
AI burg, VT 05440
514 933-4918
MegaSoft Limited
PO Box 1080 Battleground, WA 98604 206 687-7176
Microlllusions Inc.
17108 Chaisworth St. Granada Hills, CA 91344 818 360-3715
Micro-Systems Software Inc.
12798 W. Forest Hills Blvd. Suite 202
West Palm Beach, FL 33414 305 790-0770
New Horizons Software
PO Box 180253 Austin, TX 78718 512 280-0319
The Other Guys
PO Box H Logan, UT 85321 800 942-9402
Oxxi Inc.
I835-A Dawns Way Fullerton, CA 92631 714 999-6710
Progressive Peripherals Sc Software
464 Calamath St.
Denver, CO 80204 303 825-4144
Software Advantage Consulting Corporation
37346 Charter Oaks Blvd.
Mt. Clemens, Ml 48043 313 463-4995
Software Visions
2(5 Forest Rd.
Framingham, MA 01701 617 877-1266
SoftWood Company
PO Box 90331
Santa Barbara, CA 93190-0331 805 966-4662
Transtime Technologies
797 Sheridan Dr.
Tonawanda, NY 14150 716 688-9296
VersaSoft Corporation
4340 Almaden Expwy., Suite 250 San Jose, CA 95118 408 793-9044
VIP Technologies
2651 Johns St. Unit 3 Markham, Ontario Canada 1.3R 2W5 416 479-1990
WoodSoftware PO Box 16193 Wichita, KS 67216 316 529-1861
WordPerfect Corporation
288 West Center St.
Orem, UT 84057 801 227-4420
THE ORB OF CELESTIAL HARMONY
A danger-filled adventure
colorful Oriental world of magic, mysticism and intrigue. By Greg Malone.
Available on Apple"
fabled deity of the f| island kingdom I of Khantun, has
chosen you, his
* disciple,to recover the stolen Orb from the renegade Warlord and prevent the destruction of the universe.
" w ---- i ---- v v
ascending planes of Earth, Water, Air and Fire. At each level your challenges increase in difficulty, demanding greater courage and cunning. All of your martial arts skills will be required to survive the ninja-like assassins who seek to foil your quest. Sword-wielding rebel guards will test your blade every step of the way. And watch out for wild beasts that stalk the forests!
Local villagers can help, but beware the wrong approach will frighten them away, leaving you in a world where starvation looms ever-present. Wise use of magical charms, prayers and fireballs is essential in reaching the final confrontation with the treacherous Warlord where victory brings recovery of the long- sought Orb of Celestial Harmony. Good luck!
FORZGZN
systems me 136 HARVEY ROAD, LONDONDERRY, NH 03053 (603) 644-3360
ULTIMA III™ takes you on an incredible fantasy role- playing journey through monster-plagued Sosaria in search of the elusive Exodus.
ULTIMA IV™ is the long- awaited sequel to Ultima HI. The Quest of the Avatar is a quest to the final frontier the self.
AUTODUEL™ is a futuristic, fast-paced strategy role- playing game where the right of way goes to the biggest guns.
OGREIM is a strategy game fought on the nuclear battlefield of tomorrow as an inhuman juggernaut Cybertank battles conventional forces.
Ultima is a trademark of Richard Garriott Moebius is a trademark of Greg Malone
Authors wanted. Call us today.
AutoDuel and Ogre are trademarks of Steve Jackson Appie is a trademark of Apple Computer Inc.
Circle 21 on Reader Service card.
Boot Me Up to the Ballgame
Stop second-guessing the Major League managers and start calling plays for your own team. Can you beat the winningest manager in baseball?
The wind at Candlestick was blowing in from right as Bench stepped to the plate ninth inningf two on, two out, National League All-Time Greats down by two. Before johnny settled into the box, however, AL Manager Earl Weaver was on the mound, taking the ball from Herb Score and signalling his bullpen for WalterJohnson, the famous Senators' right-hander. By the time Johnson finished his warm-ups, though, Bench was on the bench. Playing the percentages, NL Manager Boh Ryan sent lefty Willie McCovey to bat against The Big Train. McCovey smashed the first pitch over the head of right f elder Babe Ruth. Already around first, and into his home run trot, McCovey could only watch in disbelief as the wind off San Francisco Bay held the bait up long enough for The Babe to snatch it out of the stands. Ryan shook his head; he’d made the percentage move, but Earl had remembered the wind.
Bringing your baseball fantasies to life is easy with Earl Weaver Baseball, the latest Amiga game from Electronic Arts. Earl Weaver Baseball puts you into the dug-outs and onto the diamonds of the most famous ballparks in the world places like Tiger Stadium, the Polo Grounds and Wrigley Field and lets you hit, run, throw and manage your way to baseball glory. If you’ve been looking for the ultimate computer baseball game, your search is over.
Not content to produce an arcade game or a strategy game, Electronic Arts did both. The arcade game lets you control your pitchers and batters and, to a limited extent, your fielders (you select the base they throw to). The strategy game the heart of Earl Weaver Baseball lets you manipulate a lineup of big leaguers in a battle of wits against a friend or against a computer opponent designed to act and
By Bob Ryan
react like Earl Weaver, one of the winningest managers in Major League history.
Warming Up
Earl Weaver Baseball comes on a Workbench disk and uses Electronic Arts’ key-disk copy-protection system. You can copy the disk, but you must insert the original disk for a short time whenever you play the game. After the title screens and credits (displayed to the strains of "Stars and Stripes Forever"), the Main menu screen appears.
Rather than using pull-down menus, you choose your options on the menu screen by clicking on the desired item. The choices let you tailor the game the way you want and to access utilities for running your own leagues. The most important options fall under Ground Rules. Here, you pick the stadium for the game, indicate whether or not you want to use a Designated Hitter, and choose between the arcade game and the regulation game.
Earl Weaver Baseball comes with 32 predefined ballparks. You can either play at one of these or design your own. The 32 built-in parks include famous major-1 eague parks of the past and present and a couple of fantasy parks. The choice of ballpark greatly influences the play of the game. A 320- foot fly ball to left field in Fenway Park is a home run; it’s just another out in most other stadiums.
If you click on Arcade in the Ground Rules, the computer will determine your lineup and you won’t be able to make substitutions. The player's performances will exactly match their historical statistics. In Regulation mode, a player's performance over a lot of games will generally match his historical performance, but his playing in any one game ?
HE WAS EJECTED from 87 regular-season games in the major leagues, one World Series game and even one game during spring training. He was once suspended and lined $ 2,000 for “making physical contact” with an umpire (which prompted him to fire off his famous press statement, beginning “Lee McPhail [then president of the American League] has again been kind enough to grant me seven days' vacation. . Another time lie picked up third base during an argument with an umpire and carried it into the clubhouse. And once, as an acknowledged master of the Rules of Baseball, he took that sacred tome onto the field and tore it up page-by-page to express his opinion of a certain umpire’s lack of erudition in such matters.
Earl Weaver on Earl Weaver Baseball
Bui no one since Joe McCarthy, who skippered the invincible New York Yankees of the 1920s, has ever compiled a better record as a big league manager than Earl Weaver did with the Baltimore Orioles. From 1968. When he took over for the Birds, until his first retirement 15 years later, he compiled a .596 winning percentage. A tough, combative opponent (as his many spats with umpires and league officials attest), Weaver was also one of the more-respected and well- liked (even by a number of umpires!) Individuals ever to be part of organized baseball. Here, Earl shares his thoughts about the game dial bears his name.
AW: How did you get involved with Earl Weaver Baseball?
Earl: Electronic Arts approached me to lend my expertise to the game. They wanted the game to he as close to Major League baseball as possible.
AW: How did you contribute your expertise to the game?
Earl: I took the playbook I'd used as manager for the Baltimore Orioles and went through it in detail with the people from EA. I explained how cutoffs worked, how to position the defense, things like that. I talked a lot about situations, when I’d steal and when I’d change a pitcher. It was like taking a major league club to spring training well, maybe not a major league club, they’ve been through a lot of spring trainings. It was more like talking to rookies: 1 explained everything very carefully.
I i i i I i mtk
EARL WEAVER
AW: How does the game compare to managing a major league team? Does it include most of the options you had as a manager?
Earl: Yeah, the game lets me do just about anything I could do with the Orioles. For instance, if we need a run in the eighth inning and (Rick) Dempsey gets on first. I’ve got Alan Wiggins on the bench, whose got a much better chance to steal second than Dempsey. So 1 can substitute as I could with ihe Orioles, or pitch around a batter, or call a run-and- hit. EA got me for my experience and expertise, and they used it.
AW: Does the game reflect the way you managed?
Earl: When you use "Earl Manages,” it does, but that doesn’t
mean you have to manage my way. You can “Ask Earl” for
advice, but you don’t have to take it. If you want to bunt in
the ninth inning down by six runs, you can.
I think the game will be used for leagues, and I think the real fan isn't going to ask my advice. The game has my name on it. But it's baseball the way you want to plav it. You play your own game and make your own decisions.
At this point Earl had to leave us. As much as he loves to talk baseball, he has developed one other enduring passion over the years: Earl had to hurry because he was due on the first tee in 10 minutes. ?
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posed of National and American League All-Stars ire periods from 11)00 through 1975. The stats that it: basis of a players performance are not lifetime stats, fmm ib * nbivev s hcst (or nearly best) year. Al
game. . , .
Before any pitch, whether your team ts batting or in die
field, you can activate the Strategy menus. From here, you transmit your managerial decisions to your players. Your
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In yrcade mode and in the Play jj- i
gulatton games, you control the nl anage mode to plav rctrnhi,; ... ine Players’ c
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stats from the player s best (or nearly best) year. Any team can be designated the home or visiting team. After choosing the teams, you indicate how they're to be controlled (mouse, joystick or keyboard) and who is to manage them. You can mangagc a team, play and manage (you control hitting, pitching and fielding as well as your lineup) or let Earl manage the team. For two-player games, you'd pick You Manage or Play & Manage for both sides. To play against Karl, click on Earl Manages for one of the teams. To have the computer play itself, select Earl Manages for both teams.
The game's four difficulty levels, from Sandlot to Major League, apply to Play and Manage games only. The Pitching Styles options determine the length and complexity of the game. In One Pitch, only the key pitch of an at-bat is played- with !• ull At Bat. Every pitch of a game is thrown.
Rite final team option is League Non-League Since Earl Weaver Baseball lets you form and operate your own leagues, playing a League game means that injured players and tired pitchers aren t available to you. |„ non-league games
you can use your entire rosier.
Once the teams and Ground Rnln.
Lishecl, click on Play Ball and begin, in -T CS ‘
the computer determines the lineup andj m°de’ menccsimmcdiatly.il, Regulation . V Conv
make out your lineup fro,,,* ,he ’ V°U have l°
l«lP, you can “Ask Earl" f„r si rm lf >ou
play, players unav;nb.hi.. ____ „ Sgcstions. In I
[w FraV under 2.00. While the arcade game is good don’t play it any longer. The regulation game is the way
P Earl Weaver Baseball comes with eight built-in teams com-
e All-Stars from four
the
the u
i iv- > ' * * "*'Tt ---------- _ *
transmit your managerial decisions to your players. Your options reflect just about all the moves available lo a major- Icague manager. For instance, on defense you shift the depth and position of your infieldcrs and outfielders, you can hold a runner, pitch around a batter, or pitch out if you suspect a play is on. (Pitch out four consecutive times and vouYe thrown an intentional walk.) You can even guard the lines or charge from first or third. II your pitcher’s in trou- ble, you can have a conference
maK.es w,.cn .. ''’]' t 1 'o '11pi« Ts signal fair and
baseballs seams a complement to the
foul.The graphics and sound are a gicat tutnpu
,.lUy the cl«se«P of the 1111V
s very good-«F« > nolsc the
Thc digitized sett" ¦ excellent. A lot
rJS*-a~ :
screen be .he pUK,
How the Sox Won the ’86 Series
BOB STANLEY gets the win in the final game of the World Series? Jim Rice hits a clutch homer to break a scoreless tie? Bill Buckner makes two key defensive plays and stops a rally? Calvin Schiraldi picks tip the save with two strong innings of relief"
inning, but then Earl pinch hit Howard Johnson for Gooden, and Hojo stroked Stanley’s first pitch for a single to center. Dykstra followed with another hit; suddenly there were two on and only one out. The next hatter, Walty Hackman, lined a hard shot towards the middle, hut Marty Barrett hack- handed the ball nicely to turn a 4-6-3 double play. Disaster averted. . .at least for the moment.
But then the sun seemed to shine for the Red Sox in the top of the eighth. (Although, of course, it was alter 1 1 pm on a cold October night in New York.) Earl chose Roger McDowell to pitch for the Mets in the eighth inning, but Weaver's genius seemed to desert him as Barrett ripped a
curve ball to left center for a single to open the inning. Jim
Rice, a certain future Hall-of-Famer but a man some Sox fans think never delivers the clutch hit, came to the plate.
Rice took a fastball high and tight for ball one. McDowell had him set up to break a slider down and away on the next
pitch. But that ball, however, hung up and over the plate for a split-second too long and Rice drilled it deep over
the left-field wall to bring complete
pandemonium to the A miga World offices. Rice had finally delivered the big blow.
Danger, of course, still lurked (as any Sox fan knows in his or her heart) because the Mets still had six more outs. Keith Hernandez walked to open the eighth, and manager Ryan promptly yanked Stanley (sigh of relief). . .only to bring on the erratic Calvin Schiraldi (gasp of anxiety). But Calvin was the stopper, as Earl’s pinch hitter, Mookie Wilson, bounced into a fielder's choice and Gary Carter grounded into a double play.
Schiraldi was even tougher in the ninth, setting down Ray Knight and pinch hitter l *c Mazzilli on only two pitches. Santana kept things alive with a slap single to center. Earl played his last card by pinch hitting Tim Teufel for reliever Aguilera, but Calvin bore down and blew a fastball by him for a swinging third strike. The Red Sox had won the Series for the first time since 1918.D
If you're a Boston Red Sox fan you would probably howl in disbelief at such improbable happenings. If you're not a follower of the Red Sox, you most likely don’t understand the pessimistic masochism of the Fenway Park fan. After all. The Sox always find a way to lose the big game or to make the wrong decision. Didn't they sell Babe Ruth in 1920 and give the Yankees an undisputed claim to the American League pennant for the next 20 years? I ladn’t they lost a heartbreaking seventh game to the Reds in the 1975 Series? Wasn’t it a 98-lb. Weakling named Bucky Dent who crushed their dreams in 1978? And will they ever forget the debacle of The Sixth Game in 1986?
Yet, all of that collective misery was dispelled for one brief afternoon this year in the offices of Amiga World. Our staff re-enacted the crucial sixth game of the 1986 World Series with Earl Weaver Baseball. We gave the Mets a big advantage by choosing “Earl Manages” for the Mcts (surely an edge over the indecisive Davey Johnson). AmigaWorld Tech Editor Bob Ryan subbed for John McNamara with the Red Sox.
By Dan Sullivan
Red Sox 2, Nets 0
Boston
New York
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Evans r f
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0
S t r w b r y r f
4
0
0
0
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0
1
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0
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Totals
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Boston 000 000 020-2
New York 000 000 000-0 Garce-winning RBT-Rice E-0wen, Mitchell. DP-Boh ton 2, York 2. LOB-Boston 8, New York 9 Owen, Santana. UK-R i c e.
New
2B-
It was a classic pitchers’ duel for the first seven innings. Dwight Gooden pitched his way out of several jams, scattering seven hits as the Red Sox stranded seven runners in as many innings. Roger Clemens pitched superbly for six innings, giving up only three hits and three walks.
Manager Ryan chose to pinch hit for Clemens in the seventh after Spike Owen beat out an infield hit to open the inning. Ryan’s first big managerial move backfired as Ed Romero forced Owen at second and Wade Boggs bounced into a 3-6-4 double play. The AmigaWorld staff groaned as Ryan courted further disaster by bringing in Boh Stanley to pitch the seventh.
Boston
J I5
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HR
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Stanley pitched to one butter in eighth. HBP-Boggs by Orosco, Umpires- Hone, Harvey : First, Phillips; Second
C. Williams; Third, Evans; LI', Davis; RF. Barnett. T-0:M. A-7.
Santana grounded out to begin the
on the mound, warm up a reliever in your bullpen, call for a reliever and make defensive substitutions. Offensive options include calling for bunts, hit-and-run plays (and run-and-hil plays), steals and squeezes. You can force the batter to swing or to take a pitch. Of course, you can always send in a pinch hitter. To be a successful manager, you’ll have to learn to match the proper play with the right situation and personnel.
The only drawback to the strategy menus is when you’re playing against a friend. One player has to close her eyes or turn away while the other makes his moves, a clumsy system at best.
With players. With the AmigaWorld league (the Bobbos, the Shawnos, the Sul- lys and the Lindas), we used the Genera I M atiager option to hold a draft of players from the 1986 Major League season. (The ’86 Teams disk is available from Electronic Arts for $ 17.95.) It is nearly as much fun to stock a team with a group ol complementary players as it is to play the game. Once your teams are complete, you can create a league schedule and begin the season.
If you’re unhappy with your team’s performance (the Sullvs have a collective batting average of .209), you can trade, create and edit players in the General Manager mode. In creating a player you sec the complexity that underlies Earl Weaver Baseball. You can enter up to 35 stats for pitchers, including different stats for right- handed and left-handed hitlers and batting slats, and up to 44 slats for other players including their performance against both right-handed and left-handed pitchers! I've never seen such a wealth of detail in a baseball game, Earl Weaver Baseball not only surpasses all other computer baseball games, it has made me put away my copy of APBA baseball, a board game that I’ve played since high school.
You’ve been working hard; you owe it to yourself to try Earl Weaver Baseball especially if you love the summer game. Get together with some friends, start a league and have a good time. I'd write more, but I’ve a crucial against the Lindas. See you at the ballpark. ¦
Often times while managing, you won’t have much to do: Your baiters will be hilling away and your fielders will be playing it straight. Even then, though, the game is exciting because you’re watching the lineup you chose in action, waiting for the opportunity when your play calling will make the difference.
The Front Office
The fun of Earl Weaver Baseball extends beyond the diamond. T he program contains all the utilities you need to run your own Earl Weaver Baseball League. Under the Things To Do menu you can examine the various ballparks, display player stats, practice
your arcade skills or continue a saved The Main menu.
Game. Of utmost importance, however, are the Commissioner and General Manager options.
The Commissioner menu gives you the power to create new leagues, each with a different divisional structure, and populate them with teams. You can either copy a team from existing leagues or create one from scratch. Either way, you get to pick the team’s name, its colors and its home stadium.
Series scheduled
You can use one of the supplied stadiums or modify it. For example, I think that Royals Stadium is a great ballpark but 1 hate artificial turf. When I chose Royals Stadium as my home ballpark in the AmigaWorld League, I simply changed the surface from artificial to natural. If I'd wanted, I could have easily created a new stadium from scratch.
Earl Weaver Baseball Electronic Arts
1820 Gateway Dr.
San Mateo, CA 94404
415 571-7171
$ 49.95
512 K required.
Once the teams have been specified, you need to fill them
SOURCE LEVEL DEWGOER
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at’s why our new windowed SDB is so sctacular because it's full of exciting tures that make debugging a breeze, course, SDB has all of the features you )ect from a debugger like line-by-line Ding. Conditional breakpoints on lines, ictions, or variables. Examination, ¦dification, and display of global, local, j static variables, structures or expres- ns by name.
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THAT WON’T STAND STILL
Part II
of a programming tutorial on learning to animate BOBs ancl Virtual Sprites with C.
Here in Part II of our animation tutorial we get down to the nuts and bolts of program initialization and shutdown. Last month we set up the imagery we will be moving about in Part III; now we set up everything else you will need to run our sample animation program, pigs.c (Listing 1). Next month we will perform the actual moving and collision detection as well as offer some hints on how to handle more complex and fast-moving animations.
Before describing the setup code, we will examine further the Gel data structures introduced in Part I, specifically, the Gelslnfo, Vsprite and BOB structs. The Gelslnfo structure contains general information about our program’s Vsprites and BOBs. For our purposes, Gelslnfo will tell the Amiga how many of the hardware sprites we will reserve (none) and where our collision handler routines will be. The Amiga graphics kernel also stores some information, such as color sets, in the Gelslnfo structure. It
is created bv our

getGelsInfo() routine. Which we will discuss later.
In Part I we exam* i n e d V Sprite and BOB data structures in terms of the images they display.
There are, however, other aspects of these structures that arc equally critical to realistic animation.
Namely, movement control and collision detection. Let’s look at these more closely, beginning with Vsprites (which are less complex than, and share some of their information with BOBs).
Vsprite Fields
The Amiga requires more information about a Vsprite than merely its position and image array. Take a look at its definition in the C include 111 c graphics gels.h (Figure
I) : there are quite a few fields in the struct, some to he used by the programmer and some by the system. Those of immediate concern to us are: Flags, MeMask, HitMask, ColIMask, BorderLine and VuserExt.
Flags tells the system whether the Vsprite is a separate Gel in itself or a part of a BOB. (BOBs use some additional bits in Flags, but we will discuss that later. Also the kernel may set two bits of its own in Flats if necessary.) A Vsprite’s
Flags VSOVER- FLOW bit will be set if there are too many other Vsprites on a scanline for this one to be displayed; its GELGONE bit will be set if the Vsprite (or its BOB) has moved outside the clipping region and will not be drawn. Your program can inspect these flags and act on them. To initialize a non-BOB Vsprite, always set Flags it) Vsprite.
The collision fields ColIMask and Bor-i
derLine describe the Vsprite’s outline to the kernel for rapid detection of collisions with screen borders and with other Gels. The CollMask Field is determined by performing the logical or operation on the bit planes of the image. Results are stored in a rectangular array (see below).
The Hordei Line field provides a quick, one-line boundary for the Vsspritc BOB. The BorderLine field’s value is determined by "compressing” the two-dimensional CollMask array into a one-line bitmask. To compress the CollMask assign a I to the BorderLine wherever one or more I s appear in the corresponding CollMask column; if there arc no I’s assign a zero (0).
For example, alter blanking out the 0’s outside the I’s, the Vsprite’s image looks like this:
Plane 0
Plane 1
1
0
101
0
1000001
111
101
101
I 1
I he Vsprite’s CollMask and BorderLine would then be represented as follows:
CollMask
I
101 1011101 101
1011101 = BorderLine
Ihe McMask and HitMask fields allow you to select which type of collision you want to detect and handle. HitMask indicates with what class of Gel your Vsprite
Figure I. The definition of the Vsprite structure.
Struct Vsprite
struct Vsprite *NextVSprite;
s t ru ct V Sprite * PrevVSprite;
struct Vsprite * 1) r a w P a t h :
struct V Sp r i t e *C1e a r P at h;
WORD OldY, 01dX;
WORD Flags;
WORD Y, X;
WORD Height ;
WORD Width;
WORD Depth;
WORD McMask;
WORD HitMask;
W 0 R D "ImageData;
WORD BorderLine;
WORD -CollMask;
W 0 R D - S p r C o 1 o r s ; s L r u c t Bob *VS Bob;
BYTE PlanePick;
BYTE P1aneOnOI 1 ;
VuscrStuf f Vuser Ext ;
can collide, and MeMask indicates what class of Gel your Vsprite is so other Vsprites can specify it in their HitMasks. Bit 0 of HitMask tells the kernel to check for boundary collisions (the only kind done in this tutorial). While hits 1-15 indicate, according to your specification. Other classes of things to hit.
For each bit set, there must be a routine attached to the Gelslnfo struct via SetCollision(). This routine will be called with pointers to the offending Gels when a collision occurs that matches your MeMask HitMask criteria. I’here can be up to 16 collision routines, one for eac h bit. Our routine getGelsInfo() simply sets handler D for boundary collisions. We will separate our BOBs and Vsprites by vertically spacing them and thus avoiding inter-Gel collisions completely; perhaps a cheap trick, but it works, if you were designing a game, you would, of course, want a variety of inter-Gel collisions as well. In Part III we will examine in more detail both kinds of detection and the function of the collision handler.
At the end of the Vsprite struct is a user-specified data structure. It is created by defining the name Yl serStiifT to be “struct your struct>” before includ- inggels.h (see the include file listing, pigs.h. line 46). In this case VuserStuff is defined struct my_Vinfo. This struct is not used by the kernel; we use it to keep special information for each Vsprite. In our example it contains movement information and a prc-VSprite id to he used by the collision handler.
BOB: A More Complex Guy
BOBs are more intricate than Vsprites and thus contain more information. In addition to the aspects of Vsprites described above, BOBs also use those parts of the Vsprite Flags not used by the Vsprites themselves.
A BOB keeps a lew arrays for storage and image manipulation: SaveBuffer saves the background, while Dbuffer will do the same should you need to use double-buffered screens (see sidebar on double buffering).
The BOR has flags for its own Flags field (for use with AnimComps), as well as two special Vsprite flags, SAVFBACK and OVERLAY, which we will use in our tutorial. .Set SAVE BACK to save the background pixels that the BOB overlays in its SaveBuffer, allowing the background to be restored each time the BOB moves; if you do not. The BOB will act like a paintbrush and smear across the background as it moves. Use OVERLAY if you wish the BOB to be drawn like a Vsprite with transparency, color 0 being tranparent, enabling the background image to show through. If not, color 0 will simply be an extra BOB color.
This Looks Like a Setup
To initialize our data structures, we begin (after opening the libraries) by setting up a Screen and Window within which to run our animation. To keep as much control as possible, we use a CustoniScreen Custom BitMap screen with a non-i esizable, borderless window. Other than allocating the BitMaps and setting flags, we will set up these two structures in similar fashion to the Screen and Window setup in Vincent Hopson’s articled
The Taoist monk and the student sat beneath a naked cherry tree, its summer leaves long fallen. Gray sky and chill wind, mist more than rain dampened the ground, dampened their silk robes, numbed their posteriors. The student fidgeted while the monk, eyes half closed, enjoyed the sensations. Cold buns are, after all, another element of existence,
After a time, the student grew bored, and thinking that the monk had fallen asleep, pulled a magazine out of his robes and began to read. The student, trying very hard to keep “the uncut stone1' in mind while he read, soon thought he had encountered a deviation from the Way. This was not uncommon. Most things done by Westerners were more of an imposition
Call for Authors

on life than a following of life. But this instance was more annoying than others, and the student snorted his disdain. The monk, who really had fallen asleep, woke at the sound and turned to the student.
¦'Master ' said the youth, “I know we cannot be responsible for the misdirections of others, but this magazine bothers me.”
“Oh?" Said the Master, taking the magazine from the lad. He began to flip carefully through the pages,
''Yes," said the student. "I have a subscription, and for the most part, I find the magazine useful. For a magazine, it is an unusually enligthened publication. But some of these articles seem to have as little substance as the clouds that drift over the summer garden."
“Did you read this interview with Andy Warhol?" Asked the monk.
“That is what I mean! I wish to understand my Amiga like I wish to understand life. You teach me about life and the magazine is supposed to teach me about the Amiga not MTV, Warhol, or what might happen sometime in the future!"
The monk thought for a moment, then motioned the student to follow him. Together they walked the miles back to the temple where the monk lived. The student followed the monk down long halls where he had never dared go before, Finally, they entered the monk’s humble cell. It was stark, cold and simple, but on the floor in the very center of the room was an Amiga computer. The monk knelt before the computer and booted up a word processing file. It was an article. “Zen and the CLI” was the title. It was neat, double spaced, and included the monk's name, address, phone number and Social Security number. As the student read, the monk pulled out a copy of the AmigaWorld author's guidelines.
“I sent a self-addressed stamped envelope to:
AmigaWorld Submissions 80 Elm Street Peterborough, NH 03458
and as night follows day, I received the guidelines. When I finish the article, I will send it to the same address and wait patiently six to eight weeks for a reply.
"If you feel that the content of AmigaWorld deviates from the true path to complete understanding, then don't just complain. The sharing of knowledge so that others may benefit is but another step on the endless road. Just because one enjoys life for what it is does not mean that one cannot take a hand in its future form."
The student, recognizing wisdom when he heard it, bowed deeply before the monk.
Outside, in the still temple courtyard, the rain had stopped.
In the wind were the faint echoes of one hand clapping.
Get Instant Relief from Screen Headache. . . With Double Buffering
IN OUR SAMPLE listing pigs.c we are able to update things fast enough not to require double buffering because we are not making a large number of changes to tlie screen that could result in flicker or glitches. However. If you attempt more complex animation programs, you may need to use this technique.
Set up a double-buffered screen by allocating two Bit.Maps for the screen, each to be drawn every other frame. While the Amiga draws one BitMap, you update the other. Then, while you are between screen updates, swap the screen s BitMap pointer to the newer BitMap.
“Creating Menus with Intuition” in the Jan. Feb. '87 issue of Amiga World.
Selling up the BitMaps is easy. First, we allocate a BitMap struct with AllocMem() (in chip memory so the graphics system can access it) and initialize it with InitBitMapO to reflect the width, height and depth of our BitMap (320 x 201) x 3). Then we allocate the bit planes themselves, using AllocRaster(), clear them with BitClcar() and attach them to the appropriate raster pointers in the BitMap struct. There is one raster for each plane of DEPTH in the Screen (three, for eight colors); each is WIDTH by HEIGHT bits (see pigs.h for these constants). AllocRaster() allocates the memory for the rasters in chip memory where the blitter can see them. Like the AilocMemQ, it does not record the size of the raster anywhere, so when we free a raster using FreeRasterQ. We must remember its size.
Next we attach the BitMap to the NewScreen struct, initialize the Screen with OpenScreen() and set our chosen colors with SetRGB4(), which sets one color register at a time. Then we initialize the fields of the New- Window struct to allocate a window that is the size of the screen, borderless, with only its Close gadget turned on and its minimum and maximum sizes set to the same value. This prevents resizing, making drawing and command interpretation much easier.
One further note: You will see that after allocating and opening things, we set new bits in the long int close- mask. These bits tell the closeupshop() routine what has been done so far, so that if we get an error further down the road and quit, the closeup routine will only close and free initialized things. This makes cleanup much easier when an error occurs in mid-setup.
Once the Screen and Window are ready, we can allocate the Gels (VSprites and BOBs). First, initialize a Gelslnfo struct to point to them by using the getGels-
You must set the Screen's RastPort.Flags DBUFFER flag to indicate double buffering to the Amiga and then initialize the Dbuffer field of each BOB. The BOB Dbuffer field points to a DbufPacket struct that points to an array sized to hold the BOB with its BufBuffer field. The array must be ( BOB_WlDTH + 15) 1(>) * BOB_HEIGHT * BOB_DEPTH words, allocated in chip memory. Set these fields and the kernel will use them at image-draw time (which we will cover in more depth next month). The Addison-Wesley manuals cover this procedure in some detail.?
Lnfo() routine (line 241 of the listing). The routine takes as an argument a RastPort to which the Gelslnfo struct will he attached. Once called, the routine allocates memory for the various parts of die Gelslnfo that need it (including dummy Vsprites for the head and tail of the list), sets boundaries and flags and attaches the Gelslnfo to the RastPort passed in.
Note that the routine allocates memory in the PUB- LIU address space for shared use with the kernel routine, and that the sprRsrvd field is set to OxFFFF, indicating that we are not reserving any hardware sprites for ourselves. If another application requires such sprites, pass the reserved sprites in as a parameter. Note also that getGelsInfoQ requires a specific, external, user-provided routine named bndcol_hdlr(). This routine is passed to SctCollision to handle boundary collisions (mentioned above in the section on Vsprite fields and which will be covered in greater detail in Part III).
It’s All Routine(s) From Here
After setup() gives us our Gelslnfo struct, we can create the Vsprites and the BOB with two other utility routines, getVSprite() and getBobQ. GetVSpriteQ takes as parameters the height, width, depth, image array, colors, initial position and Flags settings for a Vsprite and allocates one. The routine can be called by both setup() and by getBobQ; getBob() uses it to allocate the BOIVs Vsprite and is the main reason for passing in the Flags argument. GetBobQ provides the same service for BOBs; it takes a BOB’s height, width, depth, image, PlancPick, PlaneOnOff, position, Vsprite and BOB Flags, and then creates a BOB.
After allocating the Vsprites, we use setupQ to initialize their VuserStuff fields with information enabling us
to move them later. We then add them to the system

list, using AddVSpriteQ. Use AddBobQ to achieve the
continued on p. 102
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Its Vision
For a computer as extraordinary as the Amiga?1 you need a magazine that can match its excellence,
AmigaWorld.
AmigaWorfd is the only magazine which provides you with ideas and information to get maximum performance from the Amiga's tremendous power and versatility.
Each issue gives you valuable insights to boost your productivity and enhance your creativity.
Whether you choose the Amiga as a serious business tool for its speed and multi-tasking capabilities... or for its superb graphics, drawing, color, (over 4,0 colors), and animation ... or for its state-of-the-art music and speech... or for its scientific and CAD abilities, AmigaWorld can help you achieve superior results.
With its timely news features, product announcements and reviews, useful operating tips, and stunning graphics, AmigdWorld is as dynamic as the market it covers.
Don’t wait! Become a subscriber and save nearly 47% off the cover price. Return the coupon or the attached card. For immediate service, call toll free 1-800-258-5473. In NH, call, 1-924-9471
I want to discover the full potential of this powerful machine. And save nearly 47% off the cover price. Enter my one year subscription to AmigaWorld for the low price of $ 24.97. If I’m not satisfied at any time, I will receive a full refund no questions asked.
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P. O. Box 868, Farmingdale, NY 11737
Amiga is a tracemark of Commocore-Amiga, Inc 37NB2
BASIC for Pros
Professional developers are finding
BASIC is no longer a poor relation
By Louis R. Wallace
lihough BASIC has always been the most popular programming language for the rank-and-file microcomputer user, professional programmers have generally dismissed il as a serious development tool. Yet, as more powerful personal computers like the Amiga come on the scene, BASIC's critics may have to take a revisionist stance.
T he BASIC used in programming today’s advanced microcomputers has little in common with its early roots. An advanced personal computer such as the Amiga has an equally advanced Microsoft Basic interpreter. In conjunction with the Absoft Basic compiler, Amiga Microsoft Basic offers a powerful development tool. In addition, other forms of BASIC such as True BASIC have evolved to strengthen BASIC’s appeal to developers.
We will examine these two languages Amiga Microsoft Basic (along with the Absoft compiler) and T rue BASIC in relation to the requirements of a professional development language and see how well they meet the needs of the serious amateur as well as the professional developer.
AMIGA BASIC is a full implementation of the latest advances in Microsoft Basic language; it is virtually identical to the QuickBask: compiled language for the IBM PC and its clones, as well as to the Microsoft Basic
system for the Macintosh, Amiga Basic offers many ol the features one would expect in a development language, such as structured programming techniques, I O communication to several types of devices, high-level data file manipulation commands, single- and double- precision mathematics, high-resolution graphics (including many Amiga-specific graphics features such as animation), sound commands, event processing and, to a small degree, declarable variable types.
The Absoft Amiga Basic compiler is an extremely powerful BASIC compiler for the Motorola 68000 computers. It is an optimizing compiler, which means it generates especially fast, efficient machine code. It also allows vou to access the entire memory available to the Amiga, and the compiled programs it creates are standalone, executable files. The required overhead tor each program is only 48K, which compares favorably with the nearly 200K used by the interpreter. In addition, the compiled programs work effectively in the Amiga's multitasking environment. For our purposes, all references to Amiga Basic as a serious development tool should be understood to pertain to the combination ol the Amiga Basic interpreter and die Absoft Amiga Basic
compiler. Some special features of the compiler, however. That are not found in the interpreter itself will be distinguished where applicable in our discussion.
Structural Strength
One of the more powerful aspects of Amiga Basic is that it allows for structured programming techniques. Gone is the "spaghetti code" of earlier BASIC, where the combination of an interpreted language with little structured programming capabilities and generally inexperienced. Self-taught programmers resulted in programs the logic of which resembled a heaping plate of Mama leone's best bolognese. With Amiga Basic you can create the highly-structured, highly-organized programs available in C or Modula 2 by using the subprogram modules allowed. In addition, line numbers are not necessary, as both subroutines and subprograms can be referenced by labels.
Subprograms are key elements in developing logical, ordered programs. A subprogram differs from a subroutine in that it is the equivalent of a programmer’s "black box." You design a routine or set of routines to accomplish a specified purpose in a particular program. A subprogram is similar, except that it can be used over again bv including it in anv number of different programs. Once the subprogram has been designed and debugged, it can be referenced without knowledge of internal operations. You need only to pass the proper variables in the proper order and CALL the subprogram and it will perform its defined function and return data or results back to the main program, if applicable. Unlike subroutines, subprograms cannot execute accidentally: they require an explicit CALL before they will begin execution.
One of the strengths of subprograms is that the variables within it are local variables, meaning they have no effect on the main program even if the variables in the subprogram share the same names with variables in the main program. If you wish, however, you can declare variables to be shared with the main program.
The Absoft compiler offers a useful addition to subprograms, namely, recursion, which is the ability of a subprogram to call itself. This capability is not supported by the interpreter alone, but is available when you use the compiler. While recursion is not often required for many programming tasks, it is a verv useful, time-saving function when the need for it arises.
Amiga Basic offers a variety of structured programming constructs to aid in logical program development. In addition to the standard FOR. . . NKXT loops, there are the IF. . .THEN. . .ELSE and IF. . .THEN. . .ELSE Block decision constructs. The last is especially powerful, as it allows multiline execution based on a program decision. Another important construct for logical decision making is the WHILE. . .WEND loop. If the statement or condition following the WHILE is evaluated as true, the statements between WHILE and WEND are executed before vou continue with vour program.
The compiler offers another structure, the SELECT
CASE statement, which allows a programmer to create a highly-organized decision structure without using lengthy IE. . .THEN statements. There are two forms of the structure; one allows you to specify many ranges of data upon which to make a decision, while the other uses equality statements ( = , >, = ,> = , and >).
Datafiles, I O ancl Event Processing
Amiga Basic has a wide variety of commands for manipulating datafiles. Sequential files are the easiest to use. And there are many commands for creating, writing and reading sequential files. You can also specify the file buffer size, which can increase substantially the speed of file I O. Random-access files are also heavily supported. These allow you to access any point in the file directly, without reading in the entire file to get the specific point you want. Seventeen different commands are available for use with random files.
A number of options exist in Amiga Basic for I O communication with other devices besides the disk. In addition to it. There are SCRN: (monitor screen), KYBD: (keyboard), LPT1 (printer) and COM1: (the Amiga’s serial device). The last allows you to set various parameters. Such as parity, data hits, stop bits and baud rate (from 300 bps to 19,200 bps). These options make Amiga Basic well suited to many types of specialized communication needs, from standard modems to laboratory instruments that communicate via ASCII.
A powerful addition to any programming language is the ability to have the computer monitor various events without having to check them constantly yourself. Such event processing offers enormous flexibility to the programmar. Amiga Basic has several EVENT type commands. Once these are activated the computer will monitor automaticallv for the events you select; when a designated event occurs the program will branch to a routine specified in the ON EVENT command. Commands of this type include ON TIMER to force an event trap every n seconds, ON MOUSE to monitor mouse clicks. ON MENU for branching based on selected menu items, ON BREAK to monitor the break key sequence and ON COLLISION for use with the Amiga Basic animation routines.
Graphics: A More Muddled Picture
Graphics in general are well supported in Amiga Basic; a wide variety of standard commands are available, such as LINE. BOX, CIRCLE, screen GET and PUT, COLOR. PALETTE. PAINT. AREA. AREAFILL PATTERN and PSET. You can define screens and windows in a number of different sizes and color resolutions.
You may also create up to 10 menus, each with a maximum of 20 items, with the MENU statement.
Although Amiga Basic offers a large number of commands. It does not allow you access to every aspect of the Amiga’s graphics capabilities, most notably in animation. While there are a substantial number of commands specific to the Amiga’s animation system, the most advanced aspects of the extensive Amiga animation library (such as AnimComps) cannot be accessed ?
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in 3 Seconds
Actually, we're being conservative. The ANIM feature in VideoScape 3-D can play up to sixty frames in one second. Real time. Perfect for desktop video production. Perfect for desktop presentation. The ultimate 3-D animation system for the Amiga.
VideoScape 3-D has been designed to work with any Amiga computer using a minimum of 512K RAM. It features solid object generation with hidden surface removal, diffuse reflection from a light source, specular reflection, and a wire frame mode.
VideoScape's Easy Geometry Generator lets you create simple geometric shapes like cubes, spheres, boxes, and cones. You can also use Designer 3-D's visual interface to create unusual shapes. VideoScape 3-D includes a series of objects created by Allen Hastings, as well as IFF foregrounds and backgrounds painted by Jim Sachs and Richard LaBarre. You can generate frames and automatically play them back from scripts, step through each frame one at a time, and use manual or automatic camera motions. VideoScape 3-D will work in multiple resolutions up to 704 x 440 including overscan and interlace.
2210 Wilshire Blvd., S277 5anto Monica. CA 90403
VideoScape 3-D, Aegis Animator, Aegis Video! Itler, Easy Geometry Generator, Designer 3-D, Aegis Animation Workshop are trademarks of Aegis Development, Inc. Deluxe Paint II is a trademark of Electronic Arts, Inc. Amiga is a trademark of Commodore-Amiga Corp.
Combined with other software products, including Aegis VideoTitler, Aegis Animator, Images, Deluxe Paint II, or Aegis Animation Workshop, your animations will shift into high gear. Aegis puts you in the winner's circle! Join the team today!
For more information or your nearest dealer;
(213) 392-9972
To order direct;
A EC IS
1-800-345-9871
directly from Amiga Basic. In addition, to properly use the blitter objects you must use a cumbersome technique called double-buffered animation. This means you view one screen while drawing on another. IT you do not employ double-buffered screens, you will experience varying degrees of flickering when moving objects.
Amiga Basic does, however, allow you to use many of the Amiga capabilities not built in to the language via the LIBRARN statement. You can attach up to five different libraries to your program at any one time. 1 hese libraries let you reach deep into the Amiga’s operating system and use its features just as you would in a C, Modula 2 or assembly program.
Speed and Portability
T he compiler offers a significant increase in speed over the interpreter (from three to fifty times faster, depending on the operation). Sometimes, however, even higher speeds are required. In such cases, both the interpreter and the compiler let you call 68000 machine-language routines that are stored in an Amiga Basic arrav and accessed with a CALL command, in much the same wav as BASIC subprograms.
A final, and very important consideration in assessing the strengths of Amiga Basic as a development tool is the question of portability. In this respect. Amiga Basic proves itsell an ideal language. If you do not use any machine-specific commands like animation, windows and screens, and speech, you can generally run the Amiga Basic program directly on the IBM PC, using QuickBasic, or on the Macintosh, using the Microsoft Basic compiler. Most of the standard graphics port di
SAM BASIC
rectly to the PC, with only minor changes required for the SCREEN statement.
As a test. I compared a program on the Amiga to an identical one (except lor one change defining a SCREEN) compiled with QuickBasic 3.0 on a PC clone running at 8 Mhz (using a V20 and 8087-2 math coprocessor) and equipped with an ECA monitor and an EGA graphics card (640x350, 16 colors). T he program was a "real-wnrld program,” meaning it used many different types of computations and I O. 1 found the Amiga was significantly faster in floating-point addition. Subtraction, multiplication and division (even without a math co-processor): it was slower with trig functions, much faster in drawing lines and much slower in drawing circles. I he Amiga was slower in printing text when the PC was writing in text mode, hut about die same when the PC was printing text in graphics mode (which the Amiga is always doing). It was somewhat slower than the PC in integer math and in (loppy disk I O (reading and writing).
When comparing Amiga to IBM PC portability, I found that programs written with the Amiga Basic Ah- soft compiler system (using QuickBasic 3.0 on the PC) were quite a bit more portable than C programs with Lattice 3.1 (using the Microsoft 4.0 compiler on the PC), In addition, the overall speed in executing the programs compared favorably with the quickness you would expect on a fully-equipped turbo XT'.
The comparisons also revealed the Ah.so ft to be an excellent BASIC compiler. When run from the RAM disk, it is extremely fast, compiling hundreds of lines per miiiuie. Code generation is also quite fast, compa- *
t
AS THIS ART ICLE was going to press, we received a release copy of a new BASIC for the Amiga. Developed in England. SAM BASIC, appears to lie a powerful, full- featured Amiga-specific language. We will review it in a future issue, but we think it significant enough to mention briefly a few of SAM's vital statistics.
SAM BASIC is not a compiled language, but ii is more than an interpreter. It optimizes the program when it is run, giving execution speeds about 50% faster than the Amiga Basic interpreter. It has, literally, hundreds of commands, inanv of which allow acc ess to the lowest levels of the Amiga.
SAM is a multitasking BASIC, allowing up to 32 tasks Lit once (assuming memory exists to support them). It includes routines for animation (Sprites, Vsprites and BOBs), shape tables and screen dumps. The drawing commands are quite exiensive and include 3-D support.
There are several struc tured programming statements, but line numbers are required. Although SAM has iis own built-in editor, you can assign your personal favorite by loading it with the ED command.
T he supplied demos look quite impressive; some of them appear at first glance to be better than any I have seen in C. SAM BASIC has a run-time system that allows you to sell or distribute your programs. This package mav help rnanv BASIC programmers generate high- qualitv Amiga-specific applications.D
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lattice C has long been recognized as the best C compiler. And now our new version 4.0 for Amiga™ increases our lead past the competition even further.
Ready, set, go. The new Lattice AmigaDOS C Compiler gives you faster, more efficient code generation and support for 16 or 32-bit integers. There’s direct, in-line interface to all Amiga ROM functions with parameters passed in registers. What’s more, the assembler is fully compatible with Amiga assembler
svntax.
* ¦'
More great strides. The linker, Blink, has been significantly enhanced and provides true overlay support and interactive recovery from undefined symbols. And you’ll have
Lattice® Version 4.0
Manx® Version 3.40
Dhrystone
Float
Savage
(IEEE)
1294 Dlirystones second
22. 20 Secs. (IF.EE Format)
10. 16 Sees. (FFP Format)
47. 67 Sees. . 000000318 Accuracy
1010 Dlirystones second
98. 83 Secs. (IF.F.E Format)
17. 61) Sees. (FFP Format)
119. 6 Secs. .000109 Accuracy
j «
a faster compile and link cycle with support for pre-linking.
There’s no contest.
Stand a r d be n c h m a r k studies show Lattice to be
the superior C language development environment. With stats like these, its no wonder that Commodore- Amiga has selected Lattice C as the official Amiga development language.
Lailicc is a rcgisTcrcd tr.iik-tti.irk ill Lattice Incorporated Amiga in a trademark of Commodore Amiga, Inc Manx is a fCftiMcrvd trademark of Manx Software Systems, lm
Going the distance. You’ll experience unsurpassed power and flexibility when you choose from several cost-effective development packages. There is even a full range of supporting products, including a symbolic debugger, resource editor, utilities and specialized libraries.
You’ll discover that your software purchase is backed by an excellent warranty and skilled technical support staff. You'll appreciate having access to LBBS one of the world's first 9600 baud, 24-hour bulletin hoard services. And you’ll be able to conference with other Lattice users through the Byte Information
Exchange (BIX) network.
Cross the finish line.
Order your copy of the Lattice AmigaDOS C Compiler today. We'll supply the speed. You bring the running shoes.
Lattice, Incorporated 2500 S. Highland Avenue Lombard, 1L 60148 Phone: 800 533-3577 In Illinois: 312 916-1600
Lattice
Subsidiary of SAS Institute Inc.
table to the best BASIC compilers available on the PC market. As an additional plus, there are no royalties required for ihe run-time files.
CREATED BV John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz of Dart mouth College, True BASIC developed both as the natural evolution of their original BASK] over the past 20 years and as the conscious redesign of the language to meet the needs of the more recent explosion in advanced microcomputer technology. It hears little resemblance to “street BASIC” (a term that loosely describes the many adaptations of early BASIC, to the first generations of personal computers). Ii was created also in an effort to offer a truly portable language: True BASIC! Is available presently on the Amiga, IBM PC, Macintosh and Atari ST systems.
True BASIC! Is a compiled language, converting programs to a form of machine language. Although ii offers an editor and compiler in one program and is as easy to use as most interpreted languages. True BASIC! Is not an interpreter. The built-in editor contains a variety of useful features, such as cut and paste, block delete, block move, and so forth, and it operates bv either mouse or function kevs. Help keys provide easy and generous assistance in every aspect of the editor’s use.
It uses line numbers only as an optional feature, hut these can he used as labels for GOTO or GOSL'B statements.
Features: Let’s Have the “True” Story
True BASIC offers many features found in Amiga Basic and other advanced BASIC languages. It provides a number of structured control statements, such as IF. . .1 HEN. . .ELSE, DO. . .WHILE. . . 1.001* and SELEC1 CASE (a mure effective method of decision
Company List
Absoft Amiga Basic Compiler
Also from True BASIC Inc.: Advanced String Library
$ 49.95
3-Dimensional Graphics
$ 49.95
Sorting and Searching
$ 49.95
Developer’s Toolkit
$ 49.95
Run Time System
$ 19.95
(Educational discounts Available.)
Absoft
27,SI Bond St.
Auburn Hills. Ml 48057
313 853*0050
$ 99.95
True BASIC!
True BASIC Inc.
39 South Main St.
Hanover. Nil 03755 003 643*3882 (service)
800 TR BASIC (sales)
$ 99.95 making than multiple IF. . .THEN statements). Two types of modular program blocks functions and subroutines supply valuable assistance in writing coherent, structured programs. Functions can he used bv .simply including their names in oilier areas ol the program, while subroutines must he accessed bv a formal CALL .statement. Both can he internal or external (inside or outside the main body of the program). All variables can he either global or local, as needed.
Mathematical functions are well supported, ext ceding the number found in Amiga Basic, and include tin1 functions MAX and MIN as well as MAXNUM. In addition, True BASIC! Lias a large number of functions dedicated to the manipulation of arrays. These MAT (matrix) functions allow you to read, write and prim lrom the contents ol entire arrays in a single statement. They enable you to perform elementary arithmetic operations on the arrays or to multiply them by scalar values. More importantly, however, you can use them to determine the identity matrix, the inverse, determinant, dot product, transposition and size of a matrix. The MAT functions are an invaluable aid in the development of advanced scientific applications.
Bitmap graphics in True BASIC are well designed, supporting the Amiga's many resolutions and colors. Unlike other languages. True BASIC! Allows von lo assign the logical resolution, or range of points available on the screen. By assigning the screen mapping from within the program. True BASIC! Allows the same application to run on any graphics display, regardless of its actual pixel resolution a significant consideration when porting a program from one computer to another. Points, lines, ellipses, areas and text are all supported and are fully portable.
Power Options: True’s Special Libraries
While True BASK! Lias over 201) built-in commands, much of its real power lies in its ability to use special I rue BASIC libraries dun extend its command sei in specialized directions. For example, while True BASK! Has several built-in string commands, von can add the Advanced String Library it your programming requirements call for sophisticated manipulation of alphanumeric strings, I Ins particular library includes several dozen commands and can be used for formatting, pattern matching or evaluating strings: also, it contains a
37. 000-word, tonipressed-fdrmat dictionary dial can be used in your programs.
Another very valuable True BASIC specialized offering is the Sorting and Searching Library, which con-
Ll * 7 O ,
tains quicksort routines for manipulating strings or numbers. There are array search routines as well as pointer sorts, and ii even enables vou to perform multilevel sorts directly on vour data.
I he third library available currently from True BASIC is the 3-D Graphics Library. Three-dimensional representations of objects can be generated, using both perspective and parallel projections. You create die graphics using the X. Y and . Axis wiiliin a user-definable window. You mav ihen change the "camera” view- ?
- o
Improve Your Amiga's Performance...
* 20, 30, 60, and 250MB Capacities
* Real-time Clock With Battery Back-up
(Optional on Amiga 500)
* SCSI Expansion Port (DB-25 Connector) for adding additional SCSI Devices
* 1MB, 2MB, and 4MB RAM expansion capability in the SupraDrive Interface
* Amiga Buss pass-through
* Direct Memory Access (DMA) interface for high-speed data transfers 2000 DMA
* Mounts internally in the Amiga 2000
* 20, 30, and 60MB Capacities
* SCSI expansion port
... With a SupraDrive.
Supra corporation
1133 Commercial Way Albany, OR 97321 U.S.A. Phone; (503)967-9075 Telex: 5106005236(SupraCorp)
‘SLIT
AMIGA is a registered trademark of Commodore-Amiga Inc.
Amiga WOO SupraDrive
Cirde 208 on Reader Service card.
Point, altering the way the image appears in order to eflect the 3-D transformation. Besides simple plot and line commands, there are functions for drawing in a single command entire arrays of points, lines and areas. Also, you can create cube, grid, circle and rectangle graphics primitives in 3D. More advanced routines allow for the plotting of some elementary 3-D contour surfaces with the removal of hidden lines. (Hidden line removal, however, is not supported in all graphics drawing commands.) Other advanced routines are available for scaling windows, manipulating camera angles, distance, view planes and up directions.
All three special libraries can be used with any of the four computers supporting True BASIC Amiga, IBM PC, Macintosh and Atari ST. In addition, True BASIC Inc. offers a run-time system that allows you to distribute programs written or compiled in True BASIC. Inquiries should be made to the company regarding the commercial sale or distribution of programs.
“Truly” Portable
Program portability is an integral part of True BASIC’s design. If you do not make use of any system-specific command sets, you may move quickly and easily programs written in True BASIC to other computers that support the language. Because it is a compiled language. True BASIC is also much faster than interpreted languages. In most cases, but not all, the Absofi compiler will generate faster code than True BASIC. In such areas as matrix functions, however, True BASIC is generally faster than user-written routines. You save, therefore, on development time, as the routines are already in place and do not need to be created by the application programmer.
A similar advantage exists in the use of the specialized library packages. Each offers powerful capabilities straight off the shelf for immediate use.
True BASIC also offers a Developer’s Toolkit for those programmers who wish to develop software for the Amiga without worrying about program portability. This package supports animation, mouse and menus, screen dumps, hexadecimal functions, AmigaDOS, and various low-level and Amiga-system libraries. As with the True BASIC libraries, it contains dozens of routines ready to be linked to your program.
Conclusions
Our examination of both languages Amiga Basic (with the Absofi compiler) and True BASIC proves that BASIC in its more sophisticated forms is a genuine professional development language. Which is better may come down to individual needs and personal preference. As each has a variety of strengths. Compiled Amiga Basic programs execute faster than True BASK’ programs. The large number of libraries and development aids available for True BASIC, however, make it the easier language in which to develop complex software. Each language scores high marks on portability to the IBM PC and Macintosh. Both languages are indeed valuable professional development systems. ¦
Nimbus presents the first accounting program made exclusively for small businesses using the Amiga computer
AT LAST: ACCOUNTING ANYONE CAN DO
This is the first complete small business accounting software designed to take full advantage of the genius of the high speed Amiga computer.
If you don't care how computer software works, only that it does work, this program is for you.
Nimbus I does the accounting, you run your business. The pain of accounting is gone.
What You Now Know about accounting is enough.
No enormous manuals here our instruction booklet is only 12 pages long. The difference is dramatically easier, more
enjoyable even fun.
RUN YOUR OWN NUMBERS ON NIMBUS 1 TODAY
This is software you can use right now.
Visit your Amiga dealer and try it. If NIMBUS 1 is not in stock, call us collect. We will rush
a copy to you and your dealer.
Amiga is a registered trademark of Commodore Amiga, Inc
Cost: only $ 149*50 complete with its executive zippered notebook You can order by phone
Circle 75 on Reader Service card.
With NIMBUS 1, all the accounting functions are running concurrendy. You just dick on the mouse and move into a new function. Printing does not delay or interfere with other functions.
The screens are uncluttered, using colors from the Amiga pallet. Amiga dealers find that demonstrating accounting with NIMBUS 1 on the Amiga computer is actually fun.
The easy new accounting program for managers of small businesses who hate to do accounting. With all the other record keeping programs, you have to learn accounting. With Nimbus, you just start.
It’s available now
If your dealer can’t deliver it immediately, give us a call.
NIMBUS 1 requires no computer knowledge, no bookkeeping expertise. All of its functions are simple, self-explanatory, automatic and fast. It’s as easy as doing your checkbook. But don’t confuse it with simple home budget programs.
NIMBUS 1:
First, fastest and The most fun
This is instructionless accounting
Simple Accounting has Arrived
General, receivable and payable accounts are all interactive.
Built-in ready to run chart of accounts and reports.
Accounts kept on a cash basis. You know when customers pay you, not when they are supposed to.
Equity and retained earnings accounts maintained automatically.
Automatic computing of month-end and year- end closings.
Prints invoices one at a time immediately, or later in a batch.
Do three things at once. Each function has its own screen and you have instant access to each,
AH printing done in background, so you continue without interruption as your printer turns out reports.
Daily, weekly, monthly and annual on-screen status reports.
Programs and data require only one disk.
Four color WYSIWYG input screens can be edited at any time. Make changes easily without a separate journal.
No customer or vendor numbers to key in. One keystroke and one mouse-click gets any name from hundreds in less than half a second.
Automatic pop-up mini-menus guide users through each function.
Balance sheet, income statement, accounts receivable and accounts payable aging status reports printed any time and automatically at end of month.
Sold without copy protection for user convenience.
P. O. Box 4000 Fullerton, CA 92634
(714) 999-6710
Oxxi me
FEATURES OF THE NEW PROGRAM INCLUDE:
Captain’s Lo War Date 10
Afar; S20ST screens shown
“Captain’s Log, October 1. 1944.0250 Hours. Fleet submarine US5 Hammerhead proceeding Southwest at cruising speed. Our mission: intercept enemy convoy off the coast of Borneo. Disperse and destroy"
"0300 Hours. Two hours until dawn. Radar picks up convoy, escorted by two destroyers. We believe that one ot the enemy’s valuable oil tankers is part of convoy formation."
"0525 Hours. Torpedo rooms report full tubes forward and aft. Battery at full charge tor silent running. We hope water temperature will provide thermal barrier to confuse enemy sonar."
“0400 Hours. Lookouts on the bridge.
Target identification party reports one tanker,
6,000 tons, troopship of 10,250 tons, with two Kalbokar)’type escorts. Moving into attack position."
"0600 Hours. We are at final attack position. Convoy moving at 10 knots. Target distance decreasing rapidly... Crash Dive! Escorts have spotted us and are turning to attack! Rig to run silent." * "0500 Hours. 5ound General Quarters!
Battle stations manned. Preparing for torpedo run. Gauge Panel OK. Periscope OK. Charts and Attack Plot Board OK. All mechanical systems OK."
"0700 Hours. Depth charged tor one hour. Some minor damage, but repair parties at work. Destroyer propeller noises receding. We’ll come to periscope depth for our return punch."
"0715 Hours. Torpedo tubes 1,2,3 fired.
Two destroyers hit and sinking. One of the enemy's last tankers coming into ’scope view an ideal target position. On my mark Fire Tube 4! Fire 5!"
“Superb” raves Scott May in On Line, “strategic intensity and heart- pounding action have rarely been merged this successfully.” Analog calls it flatly “the best submarine simulation so far.1' Compute comments "Silent Service's detail is astonishing." Join the more than 150,000 computer skippers who have volunteered for Silent Service, the naval action tactics simulation from MicroProse.
CM CUT CCDIMPI
120 Lakefrcnt Drive - Hunt Valley. MD 21030 • (301)667-1151
Circle 19B on Reader Service card.
Silent Service Is available for Commodore64r 128™, Amiga™, Apple II family. Atari XL XE. Atari ST. IBM PC PC Jr. And Tandy 1000. At a suggested retail price of 534.95 (Atari ST and Amiga, $ 39.95).
Commodore. Amiga. Apple. Atari. IBM. And Tandy are registered trademarks of Commodore Electronics. Ltd.. Commodore-Amiga Inc., Apple Computer, Inc., International Business Machines Corp., and Tandy Corp., respectively.
Available fromyour local retailer. If out-of-stock, contact MicroProse directty for further information on our full range of simulation software, and lo place Mastercard Visa orders.
Info, phile
Clear the “Bench”
Make your Workbench a winner by clearing out the disk’s “dead wood,”
By Bill Catchings and Mark L. Van Name
A GOOD BASEBALL club with a bad bench never wins a pennant. The salaries of unproductive benchwarmers eat up the payroll that could have financed the rest of a winning team. The same is true for version
1. 2 of your Amiga’s Workbench. When the new version of the Amiga system software introduced many exciting new features and commands, there was a dramatic increase in the amount of space it consumed on the Workbench disk. (It now comes out of the package already 96% full, with 1665 of its 1758 512-byte blocks in use.) We can’t promise you a World Series ring, but we can show you how to start making room on your “Bench" in order to capitalize on the added power and performance of your system.
If you have an Amiga with only one disk drive, or if you use the clipboard to hold fairly large data items, or even if you just want more free space than the less than 47K bvtcs now available to you, you need to start making some decisions about what you want, and don’t want, to keep on your copy of Workbench. Many of the files it contains, such as demos, arc clearly not important to vour everyday use. There arc, however, other, less obvious files that are also not necessary.
In this article we will examine the contents of the Workbench disk and point out many files that you can delete safely. We will use the standard Workbench 1.2 version
33. -17 disk. Keep in mind (hat we will suggest the deletion only of files that we do not usually use. Some, such as all of the printer files that work with printers you do not own, are completely safe bets. Others, such as the Notepad program, may be ones that you use often, and in such cases simply ignore our suggestions.
While it is an obvious one, the usual warning applies doubly here: do this work only on a copy of your Workbench disk. We will be deleting many files, and you do not want to lose them irrevocably.
Start Pruning at the Root
We will discuss the disk's contents in a systematic fashion, starting with the root directory. In cvcrv directory we will look first at the files, in alphabetical order, and then at any sub-directories, again in alphabetical order. Because many of these files and directories do not have icons, they are not visible from the Workbench. You must, therefore, work in the CLI (Command Line Interface) in order to delete such flics.
One of the first things you notice in the Workbench disk are many files named either .INFO fir SOME NAMEXInfo. The latter represent the icons for the corresponding base flics. For example. PREFERENCES.INFO is the icon for the Preferences program, while SYSTEM.INTO is the icon for the Svstem directory. We will discuss the icon files for directories when we discuss the directories themselves. A special case is DISK.INFO in the root directory. T his file is the icon for the entire Workbench disk. Files named simply .INFO occur in the root directory and other directories that themselves have icons. .INFO files contain information about the other icons in their directories. Anytime you delete a file you also should delete its icon; if you do not, it will appear that the deleted file still exists when you boot up the Workbench.
You should leave the .INFO and DISK.INFO files in the root directory of the Workbench disk. The root directory also contains two programs. Clock and Preferences, and their icon files, that are optional. In the sample Workbench we customized for this article, we kept Preferences and deleted the Clock. In addition to these files, there are thirteen directories, six of which have icons.
The first, C, has no icon but is one of the most important and largest Workbench subdirectories. Containing the CLI command program files. There are 49 files here, and they consume 377 blocks. You can delete any of them that you use rarely or not at all. But you should be careful that you do not delete any that are used by other parts of the Workbench. For example, if you never write batch files, CLI commands such as IF and FNDIF look like good targets.
Both of these are used, however, by the standard STARTFP-SEQUEXCE file. We chose 1 I likely targets here; DISKCHANGE (unless you have a 5ft" or other non-standard disk drive), ED, EDIT. FILENO'l'E, JOIN, PROMPT, PROTECT, RELABEL, SEARCH, SORT and WAIT. If you use one of the standard editors, ED or EDIT, keep it. Hi our sample we kept ED and deleted the other ten files.
The Demos directory can be scrapped because ii contains noihing essential to cverv- day operation. You can delete it and everything in it.
The situation wilh the DEVS directory is almost the opposite; it is crucial to the operation of your Amiga. It contains six files ?
J n
and three directories. Five of the six files are device drivers for Amiga functions: managing the clipboard (CLIP- BOARD.DEVICE), synthesizing speech (N A R R AT OR. D E V ICE), handling the parallel port (PARALLEL.DEVICE), working with printers (PRIN TER.DEVICE), and handling the serial communications port (SE- RIAL..DEVICE). The sixth file. MOUNT LIST, is used to inform AmigaDOS of the characteristics of additional devices, such as a hard disk, that you have attached to your system. If you have made any changes with the Preferences tool, those changes will be saved in a seventh file, SYS rEM-CONFlGU- RATION, that is initially not present.
The three subdirectories in DEVS contain files that are used by various devices and CLI functions. The Clipboard directory is initially empty but is used by that tool lor storage space. The KcyMaps directory contains 12 files of key mappings for different countries. You can delete all but the one you set with the SETMAP CLI command; we kept only the USAO file. The third subdirectory, Printers, contains files that describe the command sequences obeyed by different printers. T he Workbench disk ships with drivers for 16 different printers, but you probably work with only one of them and need to keep only the file that supports it. We kept the file I MAGE- WRITERII on our sample disk.
The next directory in the root of the Workbench disk is named Empty, and that is exactly what it is. (Well, almost: it contains a .INFO file.) It is necessary because the Workbench environment does not offer a command equivalent to the CLI s MAKE* DIR. To create a directory there, you first Duplicate the Empty drawer, which produces a new drawer named Copy of Empty. You then use the Rename function to give the new drawer a name of your choosing. This Empty directory is a keeper unless you never use the Workbench.
You should also keep the Expansion directory, even though initially it is empty. It is intended to hold the device drivers for hardware that vou add to your system. For example, hard disk manufacturers typically supply a device driver file that should be stored here.
If You Don’t Want Every Font
If you have played much with the Notepad tool, you have probably discovered that the Amiga can support many different fonts on its monitor. It gets these fonts from the Fonts directory, which contains seven files and seven directories. There is one direc
tory and one file for each of the seven fonts (Diamond. Emerald, Garnet, Opal, Ruby, Sapphire and Topaz) that come with the system. Each directory contains one or more files that correspond to different font sizes. For example, the Ruby directory contains three files named H, 12 and 15. You may delete any fonts you do not use. Because both of us are quite content with the standard font, Topaz, in our sample we deleted all of the files except TOPAZ.FON I and all of the directories, and their contents, except Topaz.
Next in our tour is the E directory, a relatively small but important one. It contains onlv three files: DISK-HANDLER. PORT* HANDLER and RAM-HANDLER. These files contain library functions used by AmigaDOS in the management of disks, the communication ports, and the RAM: disk, respectively. Ix*ave everything here.
The LIBS directory is the home of system libraries that arc used by application programs. There are seven libraries. DISK- FONT.LIBRARY contains functions for the management of disk-based text fonts.
ICON.LIBRARY and INFO.LIBRARY offer several Workbench functions. MATHIEF.lv DOLBBAS.LIBRARY and MAI H- TRANS.LIBRARY provide the single- and double-precision floating-point math functions, and the transcendental math functions, respectively. TRANSLATOR.LIBRARY offers the functions that perform text-to- speech conversion. Finally, VERSION.LIBRARY contains functions that allow programmers to specify and to verify the version of Amiga system software functions with which they arc working. All of these libraries should remain.
The S directory is intended to be the standard repository for batch files. The EXECUTE command will check first your current directory and then the S directory when you try to run a batch file. It contains initially only one batch file, but it is a crucial one: STARTLP-SEQLENCE. This is the file that sets your initial path, tells you the Workbench version, and loads the Workbench as your system is coming up. Keep it and the S directory.
The System directory contains 15 files representing seven system utilities (one .INFO file plus two files per utility, the utility itself and its icon). We chose to keep three of these: CLI, Diskcopy and Format. We use all three occasionally from the Workbench. Do not be surprised, by the way, if you look in this directory and see not CLI.INFO but instead CLI.NOINFO. Until vou turn on the CLI with the Prefer
ences tool, its icon file is named
CLI. NOINFO and thus it is invisible to the Workbench. Once you turn it on, the CLI s file is renamed CLI.INTO and can be accessed from the Workbench. We elected to delete the other four utilities: Graphic- Dump, IconEd. Say and SetMap. I he biggest gain comes from deleting IconEd (34,460 bytes).
The next two directories essentially are empty but should be kept. T he 'I directory is used by programs such as EDI 1 for temporary storage space. The I t ashcan directory. Which contains only a .INFO file, can be used for the deletion of files when you are in the Workbench. You drag a files icon over the Trashcan icon and the file is “gone.” Actually, it stays in this directory until either you use the Workbench Empty Trash function or the system needs the disk space. Until one of those events occurs, the deleted file can be recovered.
The final directory is Utilities. It contains a .INFO file along with two Workbench utilities, Notepad and Calculator, and their icons. We deleted both of these because we do not use either one regularly. Notepad, at
54. 676 bvtes, is the larger of the two and is the more profitable to delete.
“Bench” Strength ... By the Numbers
If you make a few changes in Preferences (so that you have a SY7STEM-CON FIGURATION file in your DEVS directory as we do) and delete just what we did, you will reclaim about -140K of your Workbench disk. Our final numbers were 823 blocks used and 935 free, for a disk utilization of 46%.
T he whole process takes about 15 minutes, less if you are good with wildcards and the DELETE command.
You can reclaim about half of your disk with this customizing process, not a bad return on the time. You could, however, reclaim even more space il you are willing to work at it. For example, you could delete the Preferences tool, or CLI commands such as SKT DATE or one of the LIST and DIR functions. Be careful, however, not to delete anything on which another part of the system depends, or you could find your new Workbench disk unable to serve you correctly. Yet, with a little effort and care, you can streamline your Workbench disk without losing anything you normally use. And you will be rewarded with a great deal more available disk space.¦
Bill (latchings and Mark Van Name arc contributing editors to Amiga World. Write to them at 10024 Sycamore Road, Durham, AT.’ 27703.
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Fast Times with Benchmark Modula-2
Benchmark offers a programming environment so easy-to- use, so comprehensive, so failsafe, and so fast you can't wait for your next session at the computer. No more wasting time wondering is it the compiler or your code. Benchmark creates a hassle-free environment which allows vou to concentrate your energy on programming, instead of fighting the compiler. Leon Frenkel, the developer of Benchmark, debugged the product so you don’t have to.
Benchmark delivers:
Fast Compile Speeds: Compiles average 10,000 lines per minute with burst speeds of 30,000 lines per minute to give you phenomenal boosts in productivity.
Reliability: If your code doesn't compile, you don’t have to be concerned about the compiler. In addition, Benchmark’s environment makes it extremely easy to edit your corrections and then proceed to recompile.
Convenience: All major activities can be executed from the EM ACS style Editor with function keys. With Benchmark it is
literally:
*
? F2 for Compile
? F3 for Link
? F4 for Run
Optimized Code: Resultant program size and speed optimized to be similar to programs written under Aztec 'C
Full Documentation: Benchmark’s 700 page manual includes examples of every procedure, in addition to the quick reference available on menus.
Source Code Demos: Most programmers learn by example. Over 100 demo programs included which can be incorporated in your own programs.
Expandability: Benchmark offers three add-on libraries of highly useful functions and routines.
? Benchmark 'C Language Standard Library:
Includes functions to help easily move programs written in ‘C into Benchmark’s state-of-the- art programming environment. Offers the capability to include advanced ’C’ language functions in Modula-2 programs such as: printf, fprintf, scanf, fscanf, fopen, fclose, fseek, open, close, create,
Iseek, malloc, calloc, free, etc.
? Benchmark Simplified Amiga Library: Includes routines which arc common to nearly every Amiga program. Saves weeks of programming and debugging with functions for screen creation, window creation, menu creation, console handling, port handling, speech synthesizer handling, graphic elements, gadget creation, double buffered
To learn more about Benchmark contact your Amiga Software Dealer or
OXXi inc.
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(714) 999-6710 animation handling, and many others.
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? Benchmark IFF and Graphic Image Resource Library: Includes a set of functions for handling IFF Format Files and for Incorporating bit-mapped images to be integrated into Modula-2 programs as a resource. Supports three'types of formats: Intuition or BOB format, Simple Sprite, and Virtual Sprite Format.
You have the choice of either using Benchmark’s EMACS style Editor with its menus listing frequently accessed commands and their key equivalents or using your own favorite Editor.
Benchmark's integrated environment with the Editor frees you from having to list errors, look up the line number of an error, and then loading in the Editor to correct the error.
Benchmark Modula-2: Software Construction Set comes with:
? Amiga hardware software support libraries including: Intuition, ROM Kernel, Amiga DOS, Workbench, etc.
? Standard Modula-2 libraries including: FileSystem, InOut, Storage. Terminal, MathLib8, etc.
? Over 100 demonstration programs, complete with source code, show the usage of many of the Amiga functions such as windows, graphics, multitasking, menus, and gadgets in programs such as a free-hand paint program, desktop calculator, gadget based directory maintenance program, ray tracing programs, etc.
? A fast cross reference utility for both user and system
created libraries.
? Utility for loading large numbers of files quickly into RAM based disks.
t uue assemniy language interlace for writing subroutines using the Amiga Assembler.
CLI base stand alone error lister.
Statistical profiling utility detects frequency of usage of Modula-2 subroutines within programs for determining which subroutines to otimize.
? Comprehensive manual complete with User’s Guide, Reference Guide, Editor Tutorial, and many examples.
Introductory List Price:
Benchmark Modula-2: $ 199 Benchmark Add-on Libraries:
S99 each
Amiga is a registered trademark of Commodore Amiga, Inc. Aztec C is a registered trademark of Manx Software Systems. Benchmark is a trademark of Oxxi, Inc
Modula-2 Software Construction Set was developed by and is copyrighted to Leon Frenkel
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hen you send someone a gift subscription to AmigaWorld, it says a lot about your style. You choose AmigaWorld because it’s unlike the other packages that will be opened this season. AmigaWorld offers excitement beyond the holidays, continually exploring a new frontier in computing.. .in-depth analyses of the Amiga’s astounding graphics and stereo sound features, information on the very best hardware and software, a regular buyer’s guide, user hints and tips, and much more. And that means you’ll be remembered throughout the year for your discerning taste in quality gifts.
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AMIGA A500. A1000, A2000 Call All other products.. Call ANAKIN
Easyl .. $ 399
Easyl 500 2000 .... Call ANCHOR AUTOMATION
Omega 80 ....$ 155
APPLIED VISIONS
Futuresound S144
AVATEX
1200 Baud Modem S 99
BYTE BY BYTE TIC ..$ 49
C. LTD.
Timesaver S 64
CREATIVE MICROSYSTEMS Kickstart Eliminator $ 109
ECE
MIDI-500 ...... Call
EPSON EX-800 .. Call
FUJI
10 D-S Disks $ 19.99
GO AMIGA
Printer Cables S 25
Modem Cables $ 25
Disk Head Cleaner $ 15
30 Disk Case S 10
Mousepad .$ 10
Sony Monitor Cable S 35
GOLDEN HAWK TECH.
MIDI Gold $ 69
GRAB. INC.
LIVE' by A-Squared Call
MICHIGAN SOFTWARE
Insider .. Call
Mi*’ Kwikstart ......S149
MICROBOTiCS
Mt*’A2000 Adapter...... Call
Multifunction . Call
Starboard 2MB Call
Other Sizes Available
MIMETICS
Audio Digitizer $ 89
Mi*' Frame Butter Call
ImaGen Genlock.... Call MIDI Interface S 45
OKI DATA
Oki 20 Color Rib,... S 10 Oki 20 Black Rib. .. S 9 Ok mate 20 w Plug n’ Play... S199
SONIC
Speakers w Amp. S 89 SUN-RIZE Petted Sound $ 69
SUPRA CORP.
Hard Drives Call
XEBEC
' 9720H 20MB Drive $ 839
This is a selection Irom the over 550 Amiga products we have in slock. New products arrive every day please call for latest price and avail ability information
Current Specials
Orders Only: 800-BE~ AMIGA
n California: 800-843-2842
TM
P
.w
Customer Service. ¦ 415-322-0686
Send Mail Orders to: GO AMIGA 508 Waverley Street. Palo Alto. CA 94301 (Money Order. Cashier’s Check, or Qualified R0. Only. CA residents add sales lax.)
SHIPPING INFO: Software Shrpp ng rates are $ 2 50 item usr.g UPS Ground service (max S7 50) or S3 50 item using UPS 2nd Day A* Service (max 510 S3) Other shipping methods available Call tor hardware shipping foreign, and mail rates RETURN 4 REFUND POLICY: All returns must have an RVIA-* Call Customer Service to recuest an RMA-* Detective mef cnandse under warranty wi I be repa reC or replaced Returned product must be in original packaging We do not otter refunds for de'ective products or tor procucts that do not perform satisfactonly We ma e no guarantees for product performance Any money back gtiS'anfees must be handled directly with the manufacturer
Amiga is a trademark ol Commodore-Amiga Go AMIGA is in no way associated with Commodo'e Amiga Delivery subject to product availability * Prices subject to change * Circle 26 on Reader Service card
DIGITAL
THIS MONTH’S Digital Canvas is the work of Vinoy Laughner, former Senior Editor of Amiga World, who recently left us to pursue a degree in theology,
CANVAS
Vinoy brought his passion for art with him when he joined us at AmigaWorld, spending much of his time (but never to the neglect of his other duties) experimenting with DeluxePaint, Aegis Images and Digi-View. One of Vinoy’s favorite pastimes (besides playing with the Icon Editor) is to digitize objects from almost any source (e.g., an oil painting, magazine photo, coffee cup, etc.) and paste them into collages. The results vary from the amusing to the intriguing.
So. Vinoy, these arc for you. We hope things are going well in school, but if your enthusiasm for ancient Greek begins to wane, we could always use an extra hand around here.
Submissions to Digital Canvas should be on properly packaged disks and sent to:
AmigaWorld
80 Elm Street Peterborough. NH 03458 Attn.: Roger• Goode
Please include brief biographical information and relevant information about how the images were produced. Please submit disks with no fewer than ten pictures. A slide show format will be appreciated.
V
N
Searching the Heavens
responsible for bringing the Amiga into the picture at Palomar. “It provides fast display and data capture from direct imaging devices and, among other things, lets us record, view and analyze images immediately." Harris, who holds Amiga developer status, designed and built the Zorro expansion interface used to connect the Amiga to the Observatory's telescopes: their 5-meter wide Hale, which is referred to casually as the 200-inch, and a smaller one-inch telescope.
Caltech programmer Christopher Oke wrote custom software to separately record the data for each picture and control the camera’s shutter, which usually must remain open for about an hour. Rather than using photographic plates, however, images like those pictured here are made with charged coupled devices (CCDs), an array of light-sensitive picture elements (“pixels") on a
of Technology are using the Amiga to aid in studying objects at the edge of the universe.
Astronomers at Palomar Observatory
and the California Institute
By Peggy Herrington
9
dentists in sunny southern California are using an Amiga in one of the oldest and, to many of us, most fascinating fields of human endeavor: the exploration of the universe. They are using the Amiga in a number of ways to enhance their study of'quasars those exploding cores of distant galaxies that radiate enormous quantities of radiation and are thought to be the farthest, and therefore oldest, objects in the universe. I discussed their latest technological discoveries with scientists at Palomar Observatory and the California Institute of Technology.
“The Amiga is a scientific instrument that provides us with access to processing power greater than that available from any other microcomputer in its class," says Fred Harris, (ailtech electronics engineer and member of the Palomar research team. Fred was
The Great Galaxy
of Andromeda (M31)
as displayed
by CCDAMIGA software.
A tnigti I Vor fl 7
silicon chip. Each 16-bit pixel becomes charged in proportion to the amount of light striking it, and since most of the Palomar CCDs contain 640,000 pixels (800 x 800), a complete picture uses more than one million bits. This requires two megabytes of expansion RAM on the Amiga. According to Harris. CCDs have replaced photographic technology because they are 100 times more sensitive to light, especially that of the longer wavelengths like red and near infrared spectra.
Once a CCD exposure is made and its data stored in the Amiga’s memory, it is transferred to a buffer in preparation for display on the monitor, several of which can be situated around the telescope so that the astronomers can see what the telescope is tracking. At this point, the data is converted into 31 different Amiga colors in a bitmap five planes deep, and because of the size of an image, only a portion of it can be displayed on the screen at any given time. Sometimes these pictures are converted into false color images that can be strikingly beautiful.
150 2
PIXEL NUHBER1
But thev’re “business-as-nsual" to the scientists. “Most
Graphic analysis of horizon
tal cut through the Andro
meda galaxy. The y-axis
represents light intensity. Analysis performed by the
CCDAMIGA software.
J
of the time we don’t even save the images.” says programmar Oke. The information they represent is reduced mathematically and retained in a more compact form. "It's just a capability I put into the system because it was easy to do and a way of saving tilings it we needed to. But it's somewhat limited as to the size of an image you can fit onto a 3l(.-incli disk, which is about one 800 bv 800 image,” Oke explains. He and Harris believe that the availability of a hard disk drive (several of which are just becoming available as we write this) will bring the Amiga into the select class of genuine scientific computers, and they have plans to add such a device to their system as soon as possible.
Pointing to the Amiga’s flexibility and power, Harris explains that its foremost use to bis team is as a laboratory testing device that assists in the operation and calibration of CCDs prior to their delivery to the Observatory. It is used as a semi-portable data system for observing with CCDs at Palomar, and for the calibration of CCD cameras, using the star Vega as the standard, "Toward this end,” he remarked, “we have calibrated our best known CCD and have now brought it back with the Amiga to campus.”
Besides being used as part of the viewing system for their probe into the universe, and as a laboratory testing device, the Amiga is also used as a controller for the guiding system for Palomar’s 200-inch telescope. Oke's software provides the working astronomer with the x and y coordinates to reposition the telescope as objects move across the sky (or, more accurately, as the earth rotates) so that he can adjust the path of the telescope and track the object being recorded.
We asked what the stars predicted in the future for the Amiga at Palomar Observatory and Caltech. “We would like to see it tied into the 200-inch telescope control system,” Harris replied, smiling at our reference to astrology, but declining to take the bait. "That way, we could not only use the arithmetic capabilities of the processor, we could have it make correction calculations and guide the telescope automatically, without the need for human intervention.” Whether that's done or not depends on the Observatory’s pulse-control system. “At present, dial system will accept pulse input to drive the telescope around,” 11 arris explained, “but we haven’t developed the hardware for the Amiga to make it pulse output." Since there are plans to allow an RS-232 serial port in the control system in the near future, 1 larris isn’t sure whether they will develop the hardware for the pulse output or use this serial port input, whic h would require further Amiga programming.
The Palomar Observatory Amiga system includes a 512K A1000 with external 3‘Z-inch disk drive, color monitor and Coinspec 2-megabyte RAM expansion hoard. On order is an 8-Megabyte RAM expansion hoard; they’re shopping for a hard disk drive with controller. Harris is now developing an interface that will connect the Amiga to Caltech’s DEC Microvax II and their VAX 780 computer, both of which are used to process the large number of CCD images obtained at Palomar every night. He feels that the Amiga can enhance data collection and processing for smaller observatories and is hopeful that this will broaden its applications. He offers the design of these connections and that of the Zorro interface along with the custom software he and Oke developed (which is written in Lattice C and includes a number of assemhly-code routines to increase operating speed) to other professional astronomers in the interest of advancing use of the Amiga in the exploration of the heavens. For more information, you can contact Harris at Palomar ()bservatory. ¦
Peggy Herrington unites for Amiga World and other publications on a ufide range of microcomputer topics, specializing in music and telecommunications. Write to her at 10 32 Forrester St. ATI’ Albuquerque, iXM 87102.
Reviews
Publisher 1000
Getting your name in print has never been easier.
By Gary Ludwick
THE RACE FOR supremacy in ihe world of Amiga desktop publishing is on. The latest entry in the race is Publisher 1000. A dongle-protected single-disk program from .Not thea.slern Software Group and Brown* Wagh Publishing. As anv desktop publish* ing program should, Publisher 1000 provides a What¦ You-Scc-Is-What-You-C iet (WYSIWYG) screen display. All ol’the program’s tools and controls are accessed through pull-down menus unlike Page- Setter from Gold Disk (reviewed in May I June 1987), which uses an on screen icon display.
Publishing begins with the written word, and Publisher 1000 gives you two ways to generate copy: the built-in text editor or an external word processor. Publisher 1000 will recognize and load all standard ASG1I files from programs such as Scribble, Textcraft or Notepad. II you use a second-generation word processor with an IFF text formatting system (ProWrite or VizaWrite), vou‘11 have to wait ldr the promised upgrade, which also will include Postscript support. Publisher 1000‘s internal text editor is less than great. I found it difficult and confusing when generating long pieces of copy, and resorted to only writing headlines and captions with it. In my opinion, that is as ii should he. Publisher 1000 is not supposed to he a word processor, and anyone serious about writing or publishing should have a full-featured word processor at hand anyway.
The second major aspect of publishing is graphics. Unlike PageSetter. Publisher 1000 has no built-in graphics program, per se.
.4 sample page from Publisher 1000.
You can generate custom background patterns (in addition to the wide selection provided), hut it depends totally on programs such as Electronic Arts’ DeluxePaint or Aegis Images for graphics to he used on the page. Publisher 1000 does a surprisingly good job of translating 32-color graphics into shades of black and white, although it often needs more than 512K to complete the job. Once graphics have been pasted down on the page, you can both crop and resize them. The combination ol tools is invaluable.
So far all desktop publishing programs use the same page layout philosophy. You create a series of boxes on the page into which you place text and graphics. How von create those boxes differs from program to program. In Publisher, you specify the niiin- her ol columns, the spacing between columns and your page’s top, side and bottom margins. Publisher creates your page template almost instantly, but there’s still a lot to do. Basic page layout does not take into account things like headlines, pictures and captions not to mention rules (lines between columns) borders and screens (a light tone used under text to highlight it). Publisher 1000 has a number of tools that make these tasks a lot easier.
Because Publisher 1000 is a WYSIWYG program, and because your screen is horizontal. You only see about J£th of a page at a time. But the vertical and horizontal scroll bars make getting around the page relatively easy. In addition, any time you are changing the size of a box, text or graphic. Publisher 1000 goes into an automatic ? Scroll mode. As your cursor moves past the current screen border..the screen automatically scrolls into the next J£th screen section. By clicking a pull-down menu, you can put a representation of the full page on your screen. It's small, and you can’t read anything, but it will give you a reasonable idea of how your page looks overall.
For quick page rearranging, all the boxes you create come with sizing gadgets. Moving boxes around and resizing existing boxes is made easier by Publisher’s constant on-screen display of X and Y coordinates. Publisher 1000 also provides a constant onscreen rule in picas or inches) to further assure alignment and proportion.
Once the blank page has been laved out, it's time to paste down your text and graphics. In Publisher this is a pretty simple operation. Using a pull-down menu, you load your text file. Publisher 1000 will then ask
t
where you want it placed; click the cursor in the box where vou want vour text to
J i
start. If you have more text than one column can hold, simply choose Continue from the menu. Publisher will ask where to continue from and to. Click in the appropriate columns as many times as necessary. The program will link all of the designated columns together and flow the text from one to the next.
Font of a Different Type
Another very strong attribute of Publisher 1000 is its wide variety of type faces and sizes. Besides including the stock Amiga faces, a new series of faces was designed for clarity and reaclibility on dot matrix printouts. These faces come much closer to the quality of fonts used in professional publications and are a big improvement.
You can choose your text font before flowing it onto the page, or you can wait and do it afterward. By choosing the latter course you can by changing the type size, font and the leading (the amount of white space between lines) extend or condense your text in order to properly fill the space available. After making such changes from the menus and choosing Reflow Text, all text in linked columns will be altered. If you want text in white letters on a black field, clicking Solid on the Idols menu and redrawing a new box over the old one will reverse everything within the box.
Printouts on my Epson RX-80 were excellent. You really have to sec the quality that bit graphics can achieve to appreciate the difference. Solid black areas would occasionally exhibit some mottling and tiny
white lines, bin the reproduction of the typefaces was superb.
Publisher 1000 is a First class effort at desktop publishing on the Amiga. The manual is superb both in quality and in the clarity of presentation. But the program isn’t perfect. The pull-down menu interface is just not as quick, convenient or easy to use as PagcSettcr's on-screen icon method. But Publisher does have some features PageSetter lacks. I urge you to try out both programs before deciding.
A couple of other minor points: The automatic screen scrolling is touchy. Because the scrolling doesn’t occur until the pointer is off the screen, the mouse can get way ahead of where you want it to be. The automatic scrolling action will then far overshoot the desired screen position. Not a big thing, but often very annoying. 1 occasionally had difficulty getting Publisher IQOO’s decorative borders to print out correctly on screen. Lastly, the program could also use an intermediate magnification mode that falls somewhere between the th page and full page views.
But for those looking for a reasonable balance between features and price, who don't need all the professional features offered by a program such as PageMaker on the Macintosh, or who don’t plan on being full-time desktop publishers, Publisher 100(1 certainly provides very good value for the
monev,

Publisher 1000 Brown-Wagh Publishing
16795 Lark Ave„ Suite 210
Los Gatos, CA 95030
800 451-0900 in California 408 395*3838)
SI 99.95 512K required.
Easyl
To cure an artist’s headache: Take one tablet, and draw me in the morning.
By Gary Ludwick
EASYL IS really two products for the price of one a sophisticated electronic graphics tablet and its companion paint program. Rather than monopolizing the parallel port, Anakiti Research designed the Easyl tablet to tie into the expansion bus on the right side of the Amiga and provide passthrough. The pad is coupled to the electronics box by a two-foot cord, which is ample if you lay the tablet directly in front of the lOOO’s main chassis. But. Lie sure you have plentlv of space; Easyfs electron ically- activc working surface is SJ(, x 12 inches. The command strip adds an inch horizontally. While the laminate and wood border adds two inches all around.
A pressure-sensitive tablet, Easyfs smooth, yet pliable working surface covers a 1,024 x 1,024-point electronic grid. The tablet’s resolution outshines that of both the Amiga's monitor and currently available drawing programs. The tablet's electronic interface translates this high resolution down to the Amiga's lesser resolutions.
Easyl allows you to work with the tools you are most comfortable with: pen, pencil or stylus and paper. You can use any (hawing instrument on the tablet, as long as it is firm enough to create some pressure.
Rather than drawing directly on the pad itself. You use ordinary drawing paper anchored with double-sided tape.
Drivers, Start Your Tablets
While designing the tablet, Anakin Research realized that both right- and left- handed people exist, an obvious but often overlooked fact. On the tablet’s border are two membrane-type switches a red dot corresponding to the left mouse button and a white one corresponding to the right. With tliis system you can keep one index finger on the buttons, while the other hand draws. The dilemma is: which hand? If you just switched the tablet around, you’d be draw- ing upside down and backwards. Easyl’s software drivers eliminate the problem.
Easyl has six different software drivers, three each for right* and left-handers. All are provided in both PAL and NTSC formats. The regular drivers allow you to position the tablet with the control buttons on the left or right. And, just as when drawing with the mouse, you must keep the red button depressed for any action to register on the screen. If holding the button gets tedious, the second set of drivers reverses the use of the red button only. Now the only time you must hold it down is when you want to determine a corresponding screen location for a point on your drawing paper without leaving any mark on the screen. Normally, the full pad surface is mapped onto the full Amiga screen. The Pro drivers allow the full pad surface to be mapped ?
I ve
After
PIXmate: the high-performance interactive digital image processing and special effects software package
• Smart conversion routines change any image format to another in seconds
• Uses algorithms originally developed for NASA to enhance Vlklng Mars images
• New Hyper-slice TV technology accelerates graphics processing by a factor of 10
• Also supports the overscan, HAM 4096 and new EXTRA HALFBRIGHT 64 color modes
• The flexible image processor gives you over 3.000 special effects to any image
• Sophisticated 4-color separation system allows you to prepare camera-ready artwork instantly
• Unique HistoGraphic Equalizer lets you adjust color balance and contrast for any image
Additional solutions available from Progressive,
Exp-80004 Memory Expansion Board 2 full megabytes expandable to 8 megabytes Optional 68010 processor and 68881 math coprocessor fits ins'de your Amiga 600. Easy to install, no jumpers needed Revolutionary paient pending design
Microlawyer is a powerful software tool for corporate, business and personal use. Provides the user with useful. Time-saving legal form templates. Designed by a lawyer and edited by a wnter this a complete collection q1 legal templates
Viza write Amiga is a state- of-fhe-an word processor with a what-you-see-ts-what- you-get dfsptay. Also displayed are on-screen fonts as they print. Drop in IFF pictures or brushes anywhere into the document with full resizing control anytime after loading
EXP-512 Memory Expansion Board Bring your Amiga to 1 fuii meg Including a battery backed efock calander, totally transparent design, easy installation and the lowesi price available
IntroCad is the practical solution for Amiga users desiring to experience the most general and useful features of computer aided design Customers wishing for more CAD power may later upgrade from IntroCAD to UltraCAD through an affordable exchange policy.
UltraCAD is a powerful,
CAD package designed to meet the sophisticated demands ol today's CAD ar- tisl. UltraCAD provides the features and performance demanded by professional CAD users
Superbase Professional is coming in November- contact your dealer for details!
Progressive Peripherals & Software, Inc. Denver, CO 80204
(303) 825-4144
"3C AC" ;CA? £ 1 .* r **> 50C0 P X-**!* *'«* ••ftOw!-.*?»* Of snt* S lr«C
=- - ;.»*• v a-« ¦»-*.«- :•* C-odr't- S -s. Ness Macron** V .-a Semite L‘a
onto a window you size yourself. Depending on how you scale your window, you can create intentional distortion or smaller true proporiional work.
One of the joys of Using Easyl is that you can use it for tilings other than paint programs. Almost any program that uses an icon interface is a candidate for use with the tablet, in part thanks to a set of self- si irking registration pegs. By putting these pegs on the border ol your tablet, and then hole punching your drawing paper, each sheet you put down is in exact registration with the previous sheet of paper. Animation becomes 100 limes easier.
With these versatile pegs, and the registration they provide, you also can create command templates for programs that use on-screen icon controls and requesters.
Now, instead of sliding a mouse all around the table top, you can simply point and touch to control a program such as DeluxePaint II, DeluxeVideo, PageSetter and Superbase.
From Dpaint to Epaint
One piece of software designed specifically for touch inpul is the Easy] Paint Program that accompanies the tablet. Yet another paint program may seem superfluous, but not when von consider the tablet’s coordinate capture rale of 250 coordinate pairs per second. The Amiga's mouse isn’t up to that kind of speed, and the Easy] tablet must electronicallv cripple itself somewhat when working with mouse-controlled paint programs. Artists benefit from this higher capture rate, which vields higher resolution and finer line control. Easvl Paint also of-
i
fers menu selection of four different resolutions. However, you pay the price for coupling a high capture rate with high screen resolution; the screen display lags behind your pen’s actual tablet position.
The two rows of tiny, membrane-type colored switches aligned down the tablet’s side represent the palette available under Easyl Paint. Besides the 16 actual colors and 16 shades of gray scale, there are pads for oilier controls such as Fill, (dear Screen, Keep (save to back screen) and Restore (return to front screen). As nice as DeluxePaint is, a little time spent with these features will reallv spoil vou for using a mouse. In Easyl Paint, the mouse is relegated lo pull-down menu items brush selection. Resolution and other on off features of the program.
Easvl Paint contains many of the kinds of features vou’ve gotten used to in other paint programs and a few new tricks. For instance, the Infill command makes sure that adjacent sampled points from the pad will always he joined. Thus, anv stroke you make will be completely Filled with no gaps (unless you didn’t press down hard enough). The real reason for Infill (a default on) is to help very fast artists from exceeding the pad’s sampling rate and getting gaps in their lines as a penalty. The Thinning toggle command is the reverse of Infill. Due to the high sampling rate of the pad, a slowly drawn stroke, or one made with a blunt instrument, may appear too thick due to pixel clustering. Thinning prevents this, if desired.
Easyl Paint even offers you a choice of screen tablet formats, as well. Portrait, for a vertically oriented pad. Compresses your picture on screen display, but still lets von use the full height of the pad for drawing. Borders to eliminate the left and right unused portions of the screen can be toggled on or off. Landscape mode is the initial default that corresponds to the Amiga’s horizontal screen display.
In ten words or less, Easyl is a first class piece of work. Anakin Research has very obviously put a great deal of time, thought, effort and artistic input into this product, file manual does a good job of telling vou everything you need to know. The software works flawlessly; die tablet is superbly finished.
If your interest in Easvl is artistic, vou
4 J
might want to test drive a unit before vou buy. Since every artist has his own style of working. If your interest runs more to developing touch input systems for software you already have, or if disability prevents you from making full use of your Amiga, get Easvl tommorrow. And if vou are a software developer, or have an application in mind, Anakin will provide driver source code to make interfacing with Easvl,
well. . .easy. At S499. Easyl is not cheap. But.
In the right hands, it is worth everv pennv.
Easyl
Anakin Research
100 West more Dr.. Unit 11C
Rexdale, Ontario, Canada. MOV 5C3
416 714-12*16
$ 499
5I2K required.
Imprint and the Polaroid Palette
Just aim and shoot. Capturing Amiga art was never so easy.
By Roger Goode
GETTING GOOD hardcopy is a major dilemma for Amiga artists. Color printouts just don’t compare to the original screens, no matter how good the printer is. K you can tolerate the resulting distortions, vou
Cl
can take screen shots in a darkened room. You could send vour disks off to a slide- making company. But if you want to do ii yours ell with consistently good results, you should consider the Imprint system and Polaroid Palette Film Recorder.
The Polaroid Palette is a piece of hardware about the size and shape of a large shoebox, with a space on the front for a Polaroid or ‘Cjnmi camera back. Very simply, inside there’s a small black-and-white TV screen and a set of color filters. Liquid Light provides a hardware interface between the Amiga and the Palette and the driving Imprint software. The system makes high-quality, undistorted slides, prints and instant Polaroid pictures of almost any screen vou want to capture on film. It will also produce a set ol four-color separated 35mm slides from a single image, for making silk-screens and plates for printing.
Auto-focus
I'm not a particularly technical person, and I’m pleased to sav that Liquid Eight passed the fumble-fingers lest. The manual is briei (less than 30 pages), to the point and easy to follow. Setup and operation are simple.
After hooking up the Palette, you must make some simple adjustments to he certain that the image inside the Palette box is sharp and clear. As in all the program’s ?
Presenting.The Future Of Biisiness
The Commodore Amiga 2000 «
Desktop Presentation System. a
The Next Step Forward.
Commodore' presents a major breakthrough in the art of present ing ideas. Introducing Desktop Presentation with the Commodore Amiga® 2000. It’s the personal bust ness computer that’s also a complete desktop publishing center, video production studio, and live presentation workstation giving you access to professional-quality results at a fraction of the cost of outside suppliers.
Desktop Publishing Color. It’s the next generation in desktop publishing. And with the Commodore Amiga 2000, you can create your own catalogs, brochures, and magazines in up to 4096 colors. There’s a big advantage in black and white, too. Since the Commodore Amiga 2000 can display 16 levels of grey, it gives a far better
Enjoy true freedom of the press with Gold Disks'* Professional Page™ desktop publishing software. Even make color separations with resolution as high as 2400 dots per inch.
Multi-Tasking
Here's a show-stopping juggling act. Since the Commodore A miga is the world's first multi-tasking personal business computer, you can actually run several programs
simultaneously.
Strictly Business For your everyday business needs, there's WordPerfect® word processing. Advanced database and spreadsheet programs. Complete networking. And the Commodore Amiga is the world’s first multitasking personal business computer so you can actually run several programs at the same time.
So take a step into the future of business computing. Call 1-800-87-AMIGA to locate your nearest Commodore Amiga 2000 dealer.
A Give 'em a show they 11 never forget. Hook a Commodore Amiga 2000 to a Polaroid PaletterM and make 35mm slides in up to 4096 colors.
Preview of your laser-printed documents than the Macintosh™ SE ever could.
Desktop Video Video is part of the new language of modern business. But you won’t need epic budgets to produce A your own corporate, sales, and K * promotional videos. With the A, Commodore Amiga 2000 you can create professional-quality 3-D animation. Titles. Wipes. FadesC You can even paint over video images, one frame at a time.
Network TV producers use the Commodore A miga to create dazzling graphics and special effects. It can boost the ratings of your next business video, too
Live Presentation
The Commodore Amiga 2000 shines in front of a live audience, too. Create 35mm slides, storyboards, transparencies even animated "electronic slideshows." You’ll get all the support you'll need when
you're on your feet.
IOOO
Cj:: :o::: whoh .-7.A
presentation in vour shirt pocket. When you slip a floppy disk into a Commodore A miga 2000 that's connected to an RGB projection TV. You ve got an animated electronic slide show system.
Optional non Commodore hardware and software required for some applications Commodore is a registered trademark of Commodore Electronics. Ltd Amiga is a registered trademark and the Amiga logo a trademark of Commodore Amiga Inc Macintosh is a trademark of Apple Computer. Inc WordPerfect is a registered trademark of the WordPerfect Corporation Cold Disk and Professional Page are trademarks of Cold Disk. Inc Polaroid Palette is a trademark of Polaroid Cot potation
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......259.00
329. 00
4120 14" RGB Composite. 4160 14" Hi-Res RGB .
MODEMS
AMIGA
149. 00
Amiga 1680 .....
ANCHOR
Volksmodem 12 300 1200 ..... 99.99
Signalman Express 1200 Ext 199.00
Omega 80 119.00
HAYES
Smartmodem 300 139.00
Smartmodem 1200 ..329.00
Smartmodem 2400 ..479.00
NOVATION
Parrot 1200 ....119.99
PRACTICAL PERIPHERALS
1200 External 139.00
DISKETTES
MAXELL
MD2-DM DS DD 5%” ...9.49
MFD2-DDM DS DD 3VfeM ....19.49
SONY
MD2D DS DD 5Va" .9.49
MFD-2DD DS DD 3W” . 19.99
EPSON
FX86E .... $ 329.00
FX286E ....459.00
EX800 ......389.00
LQ800 ..... 459.00
LQ2500 Color .949.00
OKIDATA
Okimate 20 Color ....129.00
ML182 - 120 cps .249.00
ML292 - 200 cps 80 Col 469.00
ML293 - 200 cps 132 Col ....619.00
STAR MICRONICS NX10 120 cps
* 159
STAR MICRONICS
NR15 - 240 60 NLQ 589.00
NX15 - 120 cps 30 NLQ .359.00
NB15 - 100 300 cps 24 wire ...949.00
ACCESSORIES
ACCESS ASSOCIATES
Alegra 2 MB ...
......529.00
AMERICAN LIQUID LIGHT
Imprint
.....Call
ANALOG PRECISION
Megamiga 2 MB .
399. 00
ASDG
Minirack C .
.....Call
Minirack D...,, ..
.....Call
C. LTD
Amega w OK ...
249. 00
COMPUTER SYSTEMS ASSOC.
Turbo Amiga Tower ...
.....Call
PACIFIC PERIPHERALS
Cage II OK .
249. 00
Cage II 2 MB ..
469. 00
Cage II 4 MB ..
......859.00
SOUTHERN TECHNOLOGIES
Comspec AX2000 .....
......799.00
COMPUTER MAIL ORDER
you want to talk to us.
SOFTWARE
SOFTWARE
SOFTWARE
AB SOFT
A C Basic $ 139.00
A C Fortran .....199.00
ACCESS SOFTWARE
Leader Board ....26.99
10th Frame 27.99
ACS
Station Manager ...749.00
Grade Manager .69.99
Quiz Master 64.99
ACTIVISION
Gamestar Basketball ..28.99
Gamestar Baseball ..28.99
Gamestar Football ..28.99
Gamestar Golf ...28.99
Hacker .28.99
Music Studio .....37.99
Aegis Development *49"
ANAKIN RESEARCH
Easyl ..369.00
BROWN WAGH
TV Text 68.99
Zuma Fonts (ea.) .....24.99
DELTA RESEARCH
J-Forth .87.99
DISCOVERY
Grabbit .23.99
Marauder II .26.99
ELECTRONIC ARTS
Archon II ......24.99
Auto Due! . 34.99
Deluxe Music ....62.99
Deluxe Paint II ..97.99
Deluxe Print ......74.99
Deluxe Video 1.2 ....97.99
Eari Weaver Baseball ..36.99
ANALYZE 99
Micro Systems OD
Intellitype ...34.99
Sky Fox ......25.99
EPYX
Rogue $ 24.99
Summer Games 24.99
World Games . 24.99
EQUAL PLUS
Financial Plus ..189.00
FUTURE WORKS
Lexcheck 39.99
GOLD DISK
Gold Spell ...34.99
Laser Script 34.99
Page Setter 91.99
INFINITY
Galileo ..59.99
Shakesphere ...169.99
1NFOCOM
Zork Trilogy 47.99
Hitchhiker's Guide ..28.99
Trinity ..28.99
JDK IMAGES
Pro Video CGI . CALL
Font Library I or II (ea.) .....76.99
LATTICE
C-Regular .162.00
C-Professional .. 279.00
dbc III Library .119.00
MANX
Aztec C-Commercial .329.00
Aztec C-Professional CALL
Aztec C-Development ......199.00
MAXISOFT
Maxiplan .....99.99
Maxiplan Plus .134.00
METACOMCO
Macro Assembler ....66.99
Amiga Shell 49.99
MCC Pascal 66.99
Cambridge Lisp ..... 139.00
Amiga Tool Kit . 34.99
MICROILLUSIONS
Dynamic Cad ..369.00
Discovery ....29.99
MICRO SYSTEMS
Organize ...$ 66.99
Scribble ......66.99
On-Line 46.99
MIMETICS
Audio Digitizer . 89.99
Midi Interface ... 44.99
Soundscape ....129.00
MINDSCAPE
Hailey Project ... 34.99
Keyboard Cadet 29.99
SAT Prep .. 51.99
NEW HORIZONS
Flow .69.99
Pro Write ....79.99
NEWTEC
Digi-View ..149.00
Digi-Paint ....47.99
SEDONA
Money Mentor ...59.99
SUBLOGIC
FLIGHT SIMULATOR
$ 3199
SUBLOGIC
Jet Flight Simulator ... 31.99
Scenery Disk ... 17.99
TDI
Editor 35.99
Examples ... 21.99
Grid Database ...35.99
Modula ll-Comm ..199.00
Modula 11-Regular ...... 63.99
Modula ll-Dev .....99.99
TRUE BASIC
True Basic ..73.99
Libraries (ea.) ....37.99
Runtime ...... 99.99
VERSASOFT
dBman ......105.00
VIP TECHNOLOGY
VIP Professional ...112.00
WORD PERFECT INC.
Word Perfect ..... 199.00
ZIRKONICS
Professional Text Engine ..79.99
In the U.S.A. and in Canada
Call toll-free: 1-800-233-8950.
Outside the U.S.A. call 717-327-9575 Telex 5106017898 Fax 717-327-1217
Educational, Governmental and Corporate Organizations call toll-free 1-800-221-4283 CMO. 477 East Third Street, Dept. B911, Williamsport, PA 17701
ALL MAJOR CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED.
POLICY: Add 3% (minimum $ 7.00) shipping and handling. Larger shipments may require additional charges. Personal and company checks require 3 weeks to clear. For faster delivery use your credit card or send cashier’s check or bank money order. Pennsylvania residents add 6% sales tax. All prices are U.S.A. prices and are subject to change and all items are subject to availability. Defective software will be replaced with the same item only. Hardware will be replaced or repaired at our discretion within the terms and limits of the manufacturer's warranty. We cannot guarantee compatibility. All sales are final and returned shipments are subject to a restocking fee.
Functions, the built-in utility has on-screen instructions to walk you through the procedure. Select your Film from the list of accepted types in the pull down menu, and the program handles the rest. The whole program takes full advantage of the Amiga’s intuitive control, making it very easy to deal with. Once your adjustments are complete, you’re ready to start making hardcopy.
You’ll First want to take pictures of the test pattern provided on the Special menu. Also on this menu is the Edit Exposure option, which lets you change the red, green and blue value for each exposure. To adjust a picture's brightness, you can also change the white value. When an exposure is made of the test pattern, the numeric value given to each color is recorded in the print, along with a basic color pattern for a v%f!al check. By making a series of test exposures, each at a different setting, you can easily determine which combination best suits your needs. Once you’ve established your preferences in Film type and exposure settings, they can be saved to disk as defaults. You can easily change the settings again for individual exposures, but using your defaults
really saves time.

time limit. Your final score is based on your total driving time.
Each car handles (accelerates, brakes, steers, etc.) exactly like its counterpart with a five- or six- figure price tag. The onscreen display is a view from the driver's seat complete with dashboard, rearview mirror, radar detector and an inset showing the gearshift knob. For $ 44.95, Test Drive is a lot cheaper than a new car. (No trade-ins please.)
If your hobbies run along more sedate lines, you should investigate Accolade’s second release, The Graphics Studio. A full-featured paint program and graphics editor, The Graphics Studio offers a palette of 512 colors, a pattern library with 24 options and an 8] . X 11-inch drawing format. Features include cut and paste from a fullscreen clipboard, color cycling, 16 X 16 pixel pattern capture, pattern editing and storage and a variety of drawing tools. You can scroll a full page and zoom in on your work in three magnifications. When copying, you can specify if you want a transparent or opaque copy. To title your masterpiece, you can add text in five sizes and various fonts. The package is priced lower than its competitors at $ 44.95. For more information, contact Accolade, 20813 Stevens Creek Blvd., Cupertino, CA
95014, 408 446-5757,
plete drawing tools. Full screen effects include double, half size and mirror reverse. The 4,096- color dithered gradient fill and softening modes give you a natural water color or oil painting look. At S59.95, the price comes to a little over a penny per color. Send your pennies to NewTek, 115 West Crane St., Topeka, KS 66603, 800 843-8934.
1000 Into 64 Equals...
Why divide your attention between two computers when you can easily turn your Amiga into a C 64 with an emulator? While The 64 Emulator from Ready- Soft is software-based, the 64- Bus from Dynamic Software Technologies is hardware-based.
Written in 68000 Machine Code, The 64 Emulator fully supports all video modes, including sprites and raster interrupts, sound and color. If color isn't required, you can switch to monochrome mode for more speed. The Emulator supports all Amiga disk drives and printers, or you can use your 64 peripherals with an optional interface cable.
On the Bench
Seeking an alternative to C and Basic? Oxxi offers Benchmark Modula-2: Software Construction Set, The system requires no installation and includes demonstration programs and an 800-page manual. Professional developers may distribute programs written in Benchmark without any further licensing from Oxxi.
Benchmark integrates the Editor, Compiler and Linker for easier program development and debugging. The Editor, based on an EMACS editor developed at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Library, contains over 125 commands for handling multiple files, windows and buffers. The Compiler implements the entire Modula-2 language as defined by its creator, Professor Wirth. You activate the Compiler from within the Editor, which saves time debugging. Besides displaying an error message, the Editor repositions itself at first detected error so you can correct it. A key press sends the Editor to the next error. You can also link and run a program directly from the Editor.
To make your programming
If you need 64 and 128 support, you should investigate the 64-Bus. The Bus attatches to the parallel port and lets you use your 64 128 peripherals with your Amiga. The accompanying utilites let vou transfer files be- tween 64 128 and Amiga formats. The unit will power four devices (such as three disk drives and a printer) and uses the MOUNT command.
The 64 Emulator costs $ 39.95, or $ 59.95 with the interface cable. And is available from ReadySoft Inc., PO Box 1222, Lewiston, NY 14092. The 64-Bus sells for S79.95. For more information contact Dynamic Soft-
*
ware Technologies, 9420 Reseda Blvd. Suite 410, Northridge,
CA 91324, 818 360-2995.
Even easier, Oxxi incorported several libraries and utilities into Benchmark. Among the Amiga hardware and software libraries are Intuition, ROM Kernel and AmigaDOS. Standard Modula-2 libraries include FileSystem, InOut, Storage, Terminal and MathLibO. Available separately are additional libraries of standard C functions, IFF and graphics operations and simplified versions of Amiga libraries such as Screens, Windows, Gadgets, Speech and Gels. You can even cross reference between libraries with the provided utility. Other utilities de- termine which subroutines are used most in a program, load large numbers of files into a RAM-based disk and compile and link programs in batch mode. For hardcore programmers, an assembly language interface is also included.
The Benchmark Modula-2: Software Construction Set sells for SI99, while the optional libraries are $ 99 apiece. For a complete list of features contact Oxxi Inc., 1835-A Dawns Way, Fullerton, CA 93631, 714 999-
6710. ?
TRUE BASIC LANGUAGE SYSTEM
Speed, great graphics and enough built-in power to let you really fly: that’s what you expect from your Amiga®.
And that’s what you get from programming in True BASIC.
It's a structured language that's easy to use. A compiler, editor and debugging tools rolled into one. It’s the latest from Kemeny and Kurtz, the inventors of BASIC.
With the Developers Toolkit you can launch sprites and bobs. Add pull-down menus, and get at all the Intuition and Kemal features. But if portable code is important, there's True BASIC for the PC, Macintosh and Atari2 ST as well.
As your programs get bigger, you'll want to build your own external libraries.
But if you're just learning how to fly, True BASIC will coach you with on- line HELP. Friendly error messages, and a tutorial- based User’s Guide.
Find out why thousands of engineers, developers, and students use True BASIC for their flights of fancy. Visit your Amiga dealer, or call us today at 1-800-TRBASIC.
If you crunch numbers, you’ll appreciate floatingpoint math that's very fast. Support for large, dynamic arrays, and built-in syntax for matrix algebra.
And True BASIC makes graphics even easier. Define your own coordinate schemes and color palettes. Plot entire arrays with a single statement. Apply built-in 2D transforms. Or use the 3D Graphics Library to put some depth in the picture.
They can be separately compiled, in BASIC, C or assembly. Debug with breakpoints and immediate mode. Create keyboard macros to complement True BASIC's fantastic editor.
Language System $ 99.95 Runtime Package $ 99.95
Developer’s Toolkit,
3-D Graph ics Library, Sorting & Searching, Advanced String Library
$ 49.95
each
LANGUAGE
• multi-line functions
• SELECTCASE. IF ELSE IF
• local, global variables ¦ recursion
• GKS graphics
LIMITS
• strings to 1 megabyte each
• floating-point 5e-309to 1.8e+308
• unlimited program size, arrays, data
• names up to 31 characters
• automemory management
Hard Supplies
While Commodore is expanding the Amiga line, Phoenix Electronics is expanding the individual machines. Their latest projects are 20 and 40 MB hard drives for the 500 (PHD 500) and 1000 (PHD 1000) and a replacement power supply for the 500 (CPS-500). All the units are
covered hv a one vear limited
*
warranty on parts and labor. Both Amiga-beige drives auto* configure, have true SCSI interfaces and come with demo and public domain software. Direct Memory Access models are also available.
Measuring 2' , x 13 x 3 inches, the PHD 500 is a standalone vented unit with its own
Golden Pyramid Of Fortune
Can’t get enough of TV’s Wheel of Fortune} Micro Entertainment's The Golden Pyramid will help fill the empty hours between broadcasts. As in the popular game show, the object is to solve the hidden phrase (title, quotation, place, name) by choosing one letter at a time. Click on the money bar to determine the sum you’ll win for guessing a correct letter. Vowels, on the other hand, you must pay for. The hidden pyramid square adds a further element internal power supply. The drive connects to the left-hand expansion port with passthrough for further external expansion.
Approximately the same size as the 1000 itself, the fan-cooled and vented PHD 1000 sits atop the CPU. Since the drive offers internal as well as external pass through, its power supply has extra capacity to handle RAM expansion.
The PHD 500 20 retails for S949 and the PHD 500 40 for SI,399, while the PHD 1000 units sell for S969 and SI.429. The CPS-500 power supply costs S99.95. For further specifications, contact Phoenix Electronics Inc., PO Box 156, Clay Center, KS 67432, 913 632-2159.
Of chance. Upon landing on it, you must click on a stone in the golden pyramid which could mean extra prize money or disaster. Up to five people can play at once, solving up to 15 puzzles per game. A game show host using Amiga speech controls and comments on the action. All that’s missing is commercials. For S34.95, The Golden Pyramid is available from Micro Entertainment, 14 Wisteria Way, South Portland, ME 04106, 800 255-5217.
Control, Expand And Adapt
C Ltd has joined the rank of hardware developers supporting the 500 with a SCSI Controller, an Internal RAM Expansion Card and a RGB Video Adaptor. Similar to C Ltd’s 1000 controller, the Controller 500 allows all SCSI products to communicate with the 500. The Internal RAM Expansion Card installs underneath the machine and offers 512K of memory, a built-in clock calendar and socketed RAM chips. According to C
A Different Tack
Batten down your Amiga and prepare to enter the Age of Sail. Based on naval battles of 17-19th century sailing ships. Age of Sail casts you as ship captain, grappling up to four ships, assigning boarding parties, capturing enemies and directing your gun captains in loadouts for firing shot. You provide the targets and they do the dirty work. To provide sail
Fast Cars and Flying Fingers
Do the squeal of tires and the smell of burning rubber make you long to be at the wheel? If so, Ferrari Formula One from Electronic Arts is your game.
You drive a Ferrari Fl 86 on 16 international racecourses in a re-creation of the 1986 Formula One schedule. Before the race you can specify its length, from 10 km to a Grand Prix, and adjust your car’s tires, suspension, wing settings and turbo boost. If a full season of racing is too grueling, you can just race on your favorite track, practice on Ferrari’s Fiorano Test Track or check your car’s performance in the wind tunnel and on the Dy* nometer.
Learning to type may not be as exciting as learning to drive a Ferrari, but Electronic Arts
Ltd, the board's four-layer construction gives off less noise than Commodore’s RAM card. The RGB Video Adaptor lets you use a Commodore 1702 color monitor (which is often sold with Commodore 64s) with your 500. The adaptor connects through the 500’s RGB port and allows 80-column display on the
1702. The SCSI Controller and the Internal RAM Expansion Card each sell for SI99.95, while the RGB Video Adaptor costs S49.95. You can reach C Ltd at 723 East Skinner, Wichita, KS 67211, 316 257-6321.
Ing accuracy even in low wind, the program allows one-degree turns and one-knot speed changes, and calculates ship positions with 64-bit accuracy. Up to 40 ship captains are allowed, and, since battles can be saved as ASCII files, you can play via modem or electronic bulletin boards. You can order Age of Sail for S39.95 (plus S3 shipping and handling) from Conflict Recreations Inc., PO Box 272, Oakdale, CT 06370.
Did their best to make it as much fun. Intelletype offers 30 45-minute lessons, each of which is an installment in a James Bond-type thriller. Besides the story (each episode ends in a cliff-hanger hook so you’ll want to continue learning), Intellitype offers you the choice of emphasizing speed, accuracy or both in your lessons. Nine categories of errors covering 27 different kinds are monitored, so you can pinpoint
which skills vou need to im-